October 17, 2024 • 12 mins
Last month Pasco County's Mosquito Control District rallied resources to the west end of the county after some locally acquired cases of dengue. Then came hurricanes Helene and Milton. One inundated the coasts while the other caused river flooding inland. Now county officials are working to control the dengue outbreak while fighting a potential flareup of other mosquito-borne illnesses at the east end of the county. We speak again with executive director Adriane Rogers.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. Pasco County, of course,
so we spoke to them about a month ago. They
are dealing with an issue with locally acquired cases of
dng gay virus. That meant that they had to ramp
up mosquito control efforts. But just a few days after that,
we got two hurricanes Seline and Milton in the area,
(00:20):
and that of course brought a lot of rain, and
that has an impact on mosquito control, especially when you
talk about standing water. We're speaking now with Pasco County
Mosquito Control District Executive Director Adrian Rogers about what has
happened since then, and welcome in to Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Thank you so much, Gordon.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I appreciate the opportunity to provide an update on what
the Pasco County Mosquito Control District is doing here in
response to two hurricanes and some locally acquired cases of
dengay fever.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Now, you, of course had gotten a lot of rain
during those two hurricanes, and what kind of impact have
you seen so far as far as mosquito populations go.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Hurricanes that we just had back to back within the
last just under two weeks have been very different in
terms of what the impact was to the county and
more specifically on the Mosquito front. So Hurricane Helene came
in within incredible title surge, unprecedented for the area. We
saw water in locations that were not flooded in the past.
(01:22):
So in our coastal areas, we had a significant amount
of flooding. And this is brackish water, this is saltwater
inundating the swamps that we typically know about. You know,
we're monitoring, we're providing mitigation efforts on a regular basis.
But now we've got even more water in those areas
and larger areas that we're concerned with, not to mention
(01:44):
just the additional water inundation from the title surge. Now
we have an entire coastline that has been devastated from
that title surge, and now you've got debris piles. People
have all of their belongings and their entire lives. Our
homes are out at the street on the curb side
now and some of those things can hold water. And
(02:06):
there's certain mosquito species, especially ones that transmit diseases to humans,
that we're concerned about. For those areas, Now you have
debris that's holding water and creating a nice habitat for
mosquito production. So not only do we have the tidal
areas and additional locations from the floodwater from that tidal surge,
but we also have those debris piles.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
That we're concerned with.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
And on the other side of things, Hurricane Milton came
in and we didn't have such a significant tidal surge
as we did from Helene just under two weeks prior.
But Milton brought over fifteen inches of rainfall, and what
we saw in the inland areas of the county and
especially far out east, was riverine flooding, flooding from the river.
(02:50):
So with that fifteen inches of rainfall in some areas
a little bit more than that, all of these river basins,
all of the retention are areas for water are now
completely at max capacity and they're inundated, and so the
water has just been pooling up in low lying areas
and many neighborhoods have been completely underwater. And it wasn't
(03:12):
like the tidal surge we saw from Helene, where the
tide the water comes in and then it recedes right
back out within a couple of hours.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
These areas.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
It wasn't necessarily right when the storm came that they
saw the flooding. We got fifteen inches of rain, but
then that water moves around those river basins overflow, and
so in some cases it was a day or two
days after the storm where the water started rising in
these neighborhoods and now they're sitting with three feet of
water in their homes and they're completely underwater. And so
(03:42):
a very different impact from the two storms that were
so close together. And what that means for mosquitos is
now we have all of these areas out in the
central and East Pasco that have never had water in them,
and all of that is prime for mosquito breeding as well.
Mosquitoes eggs can lay dormant in moist soil for up
(04:04):
to a couple of years, depending on the species, and
so now we've got huge numbers of mosquitoes that are
potentially hatching off in these areas that have never had
water before, and so it's really a big concern for us.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
So now the concern is, then, I take it that
you have when we spoke in September, you had this
area that you were focused on in western or northwestern
Pasco County, But it sounds as if that there is
concern that there might also be mosquito born illness or
the potential for them mosquito born diseases in the eastern
part of the county as well.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
That's absolutely true.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
So after a major storm event like this, standing water
from that flooding provides ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes, and
the amount of mosquito production that comes as a result
of all this floodwater increases and the potential for mosquito
borne disease in those areas now it's also rising. So
(05:00):
that's really kind of our focus now, while also not
forgetting about this situation with Dangey that we do have
in the western portion of the county that we've talked
about previously, and so we're well aware of the situation.
We're monitoring this both situations. We're doing everything we can.
We've got our staff out in the field daily, they're
(05:23):
looking for mosquito breeding habitat. We're proactively treating for the
immature mosquitos what we call larvacide. So we're doing that
by ground, we're doing that by truck, and we're doing
it by air as well. So you'll see the helicopter
flying very frequently these days. So we we're trying to
be as proactive as we can to kill mosquitos in
that immature stage before they become flying and biting adults
(05:46):
and have the potential to spread disease or be a
major nuisance. And it's especially concerning because there are still
some areas even today that are without power, and when
with the cooler temperatures that we've had in the last
twenty four hours and we'll have over the next few days,
people even if they do have power restored to their areas,
maybe now they're wanting the nice fresh breeze to come
(06:08):
into their home in the cooler weather. So now we've
got windows and doors open, or if they don't have power,
they don't have ac so now they've got their windows
and doors open, and that means mosquitos are now coming
in their homes.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
And so we want to make.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Sure that we're doing everything we can to safeguard the
public and to keep those mosquito populations low, so that
we're doing everything effectively to try to keep mosquito born
disease very very low.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
So you now have, of course two situation areas. You
have West Pasco and an area where they got a
lot of as you mentioned, storm surge and East Passco
with the flooding, and you're working, you're working to control
mosquito populations in both areas. How is it different dealing
with the area where there's been river flooding as opposed
(06:51):
to what you've experienced on the coast.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
So in terms of mosquito control efforts, things are very
different from what we do on the coast to central
portion of the county, and even out east we still
have some large expanses of pasture lands out in East
Pasco that produce the different mosquitos than we're concerned with
that are in our coastal areas that can tolerate some
(07:13):
salt inundations, some salt water, and so the approach for
the floodwater mosquitos is very similar. It just may be
a different product or different timing of the application. But
in both cases we're doing on the ground and aerial
applications day and night. And so you know, we've certainly
(07:34):
intensified things since we've had for the last month or
so while dealing with the Denge situation and now the
two back to back hurricanes.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
So the approach is slightly different.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
But overall we're still try to be as proactive and
kill mosquitos in that immature stage as much as possible.
We do still perform adult applications as well. Right now,
because some roads are still flooded, it's difficult for our
trucks to get it out to some of those areas
to provide adult control, but that is being utilized in
other areas of the county. So we're maximizing our efforts
(08:08):
and it's really just a comprehensive approach. So we like
to we call it integrated mosquito management. So we're looking
at surveillance, We've got a lot of identification of additional
breeding sites, looking at adult surveillance. We combine that with
biological control where we have fish that we put out
in some of these low lying areas. Then the fish
(08:28):
actually eat mosquito larvae, and so we can put that
out in some areas where we know the water is
going to remain for a while.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
We also, of course we use our applications.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
We're doing it by ground with our staff our technicians
going in the neighborhoods as well as into these swampy
areas with applications on backpacks as well as ATVs and
side by sides. And then we've got the truck applications.
We can do larvastide applications during the nighttime with the trucks,
and we do that by air during the day. And
(08:59):
so we've got a combination of all of these different
things really working together to form a comprehensive approach, an
integrated mosquito management approach to what we're doing to try
to keep mosquito populations low and reduce the potential for
mosquito born disease.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
We spoke about dan gay and dungay symptoms in the
previous podcast, and if you're listening, you can scroll back
and hear that are there particular diseases that you're concerned
about with the river flooding in the eastern part of
the county, and are there symptoms people should to watch for.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
So a lot of the mosquito borne diseases have very
similar symptoms. For dengay in particular, these symptoms include nausea, vomiting, fever,
bleeding of the gums, a severe abdominal pain, rash, headache,
sore muscles, but not just sore muscles, but also pain
(09:49):
in the bones and your joints. So that's for deng gay.
Some of the other viruses that we're concerned with more
of the floodwater mosquitoes are Eastern equal encephalitis virus West
Nile virus. They all have similar symptoms, but in addition
to the more flu like symptoms that I described for
deng gay, the other two can also have neurological issues
(10:13):
associated with them, and so it's very important that if
you do have any of these symptoms, seek medical attention
and ask your medical provider to test you for a
mosquito born disease if you do fit those symptoms.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
What would you like the public to do if they
are noticing an outbreak in mosquito populations where they are
associated with any kind of flooding and what should they
what should they watch for, and how should they contact you.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Public education is really huge right now.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
We really want to make sure that people are understanding
that mosquito production is very high following major storm events
like this, and so we want you to be taking
the necessary precautions to protect yourself from mosquito exposure. Long
sleeve shirts, long pants, shoes, and socks cover up your
exposed skin. We use an insect repellent with the active
(11:06):
ingredient deep or picart in it. Those are two really
effective mosquito repellents. Also, drain and dump any standing water
that you might have around your homes if possible, and
you can visit our website pascomosquito dot org for additional information.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
You can also give us a call.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
One thing that typically people don't think about in terms
of mosquito production around the house are gutters. And with
all the debris that we have now, I think it's
now a good time to make sure your gutters are
nice and clean and flowing properly. If they get clogged
up with leaves and other debris, the water can't flow
through them, and so they're stagnant sitting water and that's
(11:47):
prime for mosquito production as well. So really just do
what you can to limit your exposure to mosquitos. If
you have an area that you want to make us
aware of, give us a call or visit our webs site.
Our phone number is seven two seven three seven six
four five six eight and pascomosquito dot org to report
any issues. But just know that we understand the situation.
(12:09):
We know that there's a lot of water on the
ground right now, and our technicians are out there, likely
you know, in your community right now, performing applications to
try to combat this issue.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Adrian Roger is the executive director of Pasco County's Mosquito
Control District. Thank you very much for joining us on
beyond the news.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Thank you, I appreciate it.
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. Pasco County, of course,
so we spoke to them about a month ago. They
are dealing with an issue with locally acquired cases of
dng gay virus. That meant that they had to ramp
up mosquito control efforts. But just a few days after that,
we got two hurricanes Seline and Milton in the area,
(00:20):
and that of course brought a lot of rain, and
that has an impact on mosquito control, especially when you
talk about standing water. We're speaking now with Pasco County
Mosquito Control District Executive Director Adrian Rogers about what has
happened since then, and welcome in to Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Thank you so much, Gordon.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I appreciate the opportunity to provide an update on what
the Pasco County Mosquito Control District is doing here in
response to two hurricanes and some locally acquired cases of
dengay fever.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Now, you, of course had gotten a lot of rain
during those two hurricanes, and what kind of impact have
you seen so far as far as mosquito populations go.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Hurricanes that we just had back to back within the
last just under two weeks have been very different in
terms of what the impact was to the county and
more specifically on the Mosquito front. So Hurricane Helene came
in within incredible title surge, unprecedented for the area. We
saw water in locations that were not flooded in the past.
(01:22):
So in our coastal areas, we had a significant amount
of flooding. And this is brackish water, this is saltwater
inundating the swamps that we typically know about. You know,
we're monitoring, we're providing mitigation efforts on a regular basis.
But now we've got even more water in those areas
and larger areas that we're concerned with, not to mention
(01:44):
just the additional water inundation from the title surge. Now
we have an entire coastline that has been devastated from
that title surge, and now you've got debris piles. People
have all of their belongings and their entire lives. Our
homes are out at the street on the curb side
now and some of those things can hold water. And
(02:06):
there's certain mosquito species, especially ones that transmit diseases to humans,
that we're concerned about. For those areas, Now you have
debris that's holding water and creating a nice habitat for
mosquito production. So not only do we have the tidal
areas and additional locations from the floodwater from that tidal surge,
but we also have those debris piles.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
That we're concerned with.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
And on the other side of things, Hurricane Milton came
in and we didn't have such a significant tidal surge
as we did from Helene just under two weeks prior.
But Milton brought over fifteen inches of rainfall, and what
we saw in the inland areas of the county and
especially far out east, was riverine flooding, flooding from the river.
(02:50):
So with that fifteen inches of rainfall in some areas
a little bit more than that, all of these river basins,
all of the retention are areas for water are now
completely at max capacity and they're inundated, and so the
water has just been pooling up in low lying areas
and many neighborhoods have been completely underwater. And it wasn't
(03:12):
like the tidal surge we saw from Helene, where the
tide the water comes in and then it recedes right
back out within a couple of hours.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
These areas.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
It wasn't necessarily right when the storm came that they
saw the flooding. We got fifteen inches of rain, but
then that water moves around those river basins overflow, and
so in some cases it was a day or two
days after the storm where the water started rising in
these neighborhoods and now they're sitting with three feet of
water in their homes and they're completely underwater. And so
(03:42):
a very different impact from the two storms that were
so close together. And what that means for mosquitos is
now we have all of these areas out in the
central and East Pasco that have never had water in them,
and all of that is prime for mosquito breeding as well.
Mosquitoes eggs can lay dormant in moist soil for up
(04:04):
to a couple of years, depending on the species, and
so now we've got huge numbers of mosquitoes that are
potentially hatching off in these areas that have never had
water before, and so it's really a big concern for us.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
So now the concern is, then, I take it that
you have when we spoke in September, you had this
area that you were focused on in western or northwestern
Pasco County, But it sounds as if that there is
concern that there might also be mosquito born illness or
the potential for them mosquito born diseases in the eastern
part of the county as well.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
That's absolutely true.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
So after a major storm event like this, standing water
from that flooding provides ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes, and
the amount of mosquito production that comes as a result
of all this floodwater increases and the potential for mosquito
borne disease in those areas now it's also rising. So
(05:00):
that's really kind of our focus now, while also not
forgetting about this situation with Dangey that we do have
in the western portion of the county that we've talked
about previously, and so we're well aware of the situation.
We're monitoring this both situations. We're doing everything we can.
We've got our staff out in the field daily, they're
(05:23):
looking for mosquito breeding habitat. We're proactively treating for the
immature mosquitos what we call larvacide. So we're doing that
by ground, we're doing that by truck, and we're doing
it by air as well. So you'll see the helicopter
flying very frequently these days. So we we're trying to
be as proactive as we can to kill mosquitos in
that immature stage before they become flying and biting adults
(05:46):
and have the potential to spread disease or be a
major nuisance. And it's especially concerning because there are still
some areas even today that are without power, and when
with the cooler temperatures that we've had in the last
twenty four hours and we'll have over the next few days,
people even if they do have power restored to their areas,
maybe now they're wanting the nice fresh breeze to come
(06:08):
into their home in the cooler weather. So now we've
got windows and doors open, or if they don't have power,
they don't have ac so now they've got their windows
and doors open, and that means mosquitos are now coming
in their homes.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
And so we want to make.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Sure that we're doing everything we can to safeguard the
public and to keep those mosquito populations low, so that
we're doing everything effectively to try to keep mosquito born
disease very very low.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
So you now have, of course two situation areas. You
have West Pasco and an area where they got a
lot of as you mentioned, storm surge and East Passco
with the flooding, and you're working, you're working to control
mosquito populations in both areas. How is it different dealing
with the area where there's been river flooding as opposed
(06:51):
to what you've experienced on the coast.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
So in terms of mosquito control efforts, things are very
different from what we do on the coast to central
portion of the county, and even out east we still
have some large expanses of pasture lands out in East
Pasco that produce the different mosquitos than we're concerned with
that are in our coastal areas that can tolerate some
(07:13):
salt inundations, some salt water, and so the approach for
the floodwater mosquitos is very similar. It just may be
a different product or different timing of the application. But
in both cases we're doing on the ground and aerial
applications day and night. And so you know, we've certainly
(07:34):
intensified things since we've had for the last month or
so while dealing with the Denge situation and now the
two back to back hurricanes.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
So the approach is slightly different.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
But overall we're still try to be as proactive and
kill mosquitos in that immature stage as much as possible.
We do still perform adult applications as well. Right now,
because some roads are still flooded, it's difficult for our
trucks to get it out to some of those areas
to provide adult control, but that is being utilized in
other areas of the county. So we're maximizing our efforts
(08:08):
and it's really just a comprehensive approach. So we like
to we call it integrated mosquito management. So we're looking
at surveillance, We've got a lot of identification of additional
breeding sites, looking at adult surveillance. We combine that with
biological control where we have fish that we put out
in some of these low lying areas. Then the fish
(08:28):
actually eat mosquito larvae, and so we can put that
out in some areas where we know the water is
going to remain for a while.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
We also, of course we use our applications.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
We're doing it by ground with our staff our technicians
going in the neighborhoods as well as into these swampy
areas with applications on backpacks as well as ATVs and
side by sides. And then we've got the truck applications.
We can do larvastide applications during the nighttime with the trucks,
and we do that by air during the day. And
(08:59):
so we've got a combination of all of these different
things really working together to form a comprehensive approach, an
integrated mosquito management approach to what we're doing to try
to keep mosquito populations low and reduce the potential for
mosquito born disease.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
We spoke about dan gay and dungay symptoms in the
previous podcast, and if you're listening, you can scroll back
and hear that are there particular diseases that you're concerned
about with the river flooding in the eastern part of
the county, and are there symptoms people should to watch for.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
So a lot of the mosquito borne diseases have very
similar symptoms. For dengay in particular, these symptoms include nausea, vomiting, fever,
bleeding of the gums, a severe abdominal pain, rash, headache,
sore muscles, but not just sore muscles, but also pain
(09:49):
in the bones and your joints. So that's for deng gay.
Some of the other viruses that we're concerned with more
of the floodwater mosquitoes are Eastern equal encephalitis virus West
Nile virus. They all have similar symptoms, but in addition
to the more flu like symptoms that I described for
deng gay, the other two can also have neurological issues
(10:13):
associated with them, and so it's very important that if
you do have any of these symptoms, seek medical attention
and ask your medical provider to test you for a
mosquito born disease if you do fit those symptoms.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
What would you like the public to do if they
are noticing an outbreak in mosquito populations where they are
associated with any kind of flooding and what should they
what should they watch for, and how should they contact you.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Public education is really huge right now.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
We really want to make sure that people are understanding
that mosquito production is very high following major storm events
like this, and so we want you to be taking
the necessary precautions to protect yourself from mosquito exposure. Long
sleeve shirts, long pants, shoes, and socks cover up your
exposed skin. We use an insect repellent with the active
(11:06):
ingredient deep or picart in it. Those are two really
effective mosquito repellents. Also, drain and dump any standing water
that you might have around your homes if possible, and
you can visit our website pascomosquito dot org for additional information.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
You can also give us a call.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
One thing that typically people don't think about in terms
of mosquito production around the house are gutters. And with
all the debris that we have now, I think it's
now a good time to make sure your gutters are
nice and clean and flowing properly. If they get clogged
up with leaves and other debris, the water can't flow
through them, and so they're stagnant sitting water and that's
(11:47):
prime for mosquito production as well. So really just do
what you can to limit your exposure to mosquitos. If
you have an area that you want to make us
aware of, give us a call or visit our webs site.
Our phone number is seven two seven three seven six
four five six eight and pascomosquito dot org to report
any issues. But just know that we understand the situation.
(12:09):
We know that there's a lot of water on the
ground right now, and our technicians are out there, likely
you know, in your community right now, performing applications to
try to combat this issue.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Adrian Roger is the executive director of Pasco County's Mosquito
Control District. Thank you very much for joining us on
beyond the news.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Thank you, I appreciate it.
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