All of the flooding along the Withlacoochee is causing a mosquito outbreak.
There are 80 different species of mosquitoes in the state of Florida. But the Flood Water Mosquito is what is exploding in population.
Hernando County Mosquito Control expert Joe Cheer says the one good thing about the flood species is that it doesn’t carry diseases.
The county has gone from 5 to 10 calls a day to 200 calls.
Cheer says in one area they set a trap that normally catches 20 to 30 mosquitoes a day but this week they caught 1,200 flood water mosquitoes in one day.
The Mosquito Control team says they are working hard to spray and kill the larva and adult mosquitoes. They are also releasing minnow type fish that eat mosquito larva.
But Cheer says until the water goes down the bugs will continue to be a problem.
Cheer said, "The problem is that you’re going to have standing water without fish in it and there’s a lot of areas that we can’t access by foot so that’s going to be the challenge for us."
