PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — With the recent cases of Malaria in Sarasota County, we've started looking into ways offices are protecting people from mosquitoes.
Earlier this week, Sarasota Mosquito Management crews said all of those cases are in one area of the city, but counties across the Tampa Bay area are taking steps to make sure there is no further spread.
Officials at the Pasco County Mosquito Control District said there is no doubt the mosquitoes are active this summer, but they are working diligently to track and treat them. We also spoke to some families at the park who are concerned about mosquitoes biting their kids.
“It can be scary, all the bites they can get on their legs and stuff like that and having to take care of it," Lindsey Brenner said while enjoying a morning at the park with her niece.
Brenner said she is more conscious of wearing bug spray and putting it on the kids after the recent malaria cases.
There are no cases of Malaria in Pasco County, but they do have the type of mosquitoes that are capable of transmitting the disease.
“Our focus here in Pasco County is very proactive. We try to attack the mosquito vector in the immature stage, in the larvae stage—that’s before they become flying and biting adults," Adriane Rogers with the Pasco County Mosquito Control District said.
One way they treat those mosquitoes is with a helicopter.
“Flying very low above the tree tops, dispensing a granular product that goes into the water where the mosquito larvae are,” Rogers said.
They also have trucks spray liquid product to attack adult mosquitoes. The surveillance team tracks the type and location of mosquitoes to know exactly where to treat.
While they are working diligently to treat the mosquitoes, you can protect yourself with bug spray and long clothes.
