When Collier County Mosquito Control treats the areas over Immokalee and Ave Maria, it will only be the 32nd mission all summer.
By this time last summer, there were 115 missions flown over the county, you can thank Hurricane Irma for the dramatic decrease.
“The rains and the high tides, we suspect, flushed a lot of those eggs out of the mangrove area, as well as piled up some new areas sand,” said Mosquito Control Spokesperson Robin King.
Residents around Collier County are feeling the difference.
“I really think its better this year if you go out at night, we still spare ourselves, but it doesn’t seem nearly as bad as it was last year,” said Naples resident Jeanette Hari-Haran.
A drier than normal summer can also be credited with keeping the mosquito population at bay, but that isn’t stopping mosquito control from doing it’s job.
Workers continue to keep tabs on which areas have the most mosquitoes.
“We have traps throughout the district, we look at the number of complaints we are receiving from the public, we have our field technicians go out and do a lot of surveillance,” said King.
Collier Mosquito Control is still giving away small live fish that can eat mosquito larvae that appear in standing water.
