POMPANO BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - Officials are learning new techniques for mosquito control that they hope will prevent another Zika emergency.
Because of last year’s Zika scare, Broward County is starting early this year, bringing in an extra 40 county workers to combat mosquitoes on the ground. They have new technology and equipment.
The county demonstrated some of these new tools Tuesday morning to the media, including new trucks that dispense a granulated powder, which is picked up by the wind and carried into hard-to-reach places. Experts believe this is just one of the ways they can get an upperhand to fight the growing population of mosquitoes as spring arrives.
However, the public still needs to do its part, like draining standing water from around homes. They say it’s best to do whatever anyone can to control the mosquito population because it’s much harder to control a Zika outbreak.
Anh Ton, from Broward County Mosquito Control, noted that the mosquito known to carry Zika has different habits from other mosquitoes, which presents different challenges.
“This one primarily are what we call a continued breeder,” Ton said, “and they bite all day long, so to go out after them when they are in an adult phase is very difficult because they’re flying around, and they’re constantly hiding and biting all day long, so it’s not like we can go spray in the morning and the afternoon, when other mosquitoes are biting, to knock this mosquito down, so we have to target them in a larvae state.”
Workers will be going out soon in Broward County to begin spraying. They will not go on your property unless you are home, however.
Mosquito season begins in May and lasts through October.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.