ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – Due to a high number of mosquitoes plaguing St. Johns County residents, Anastasia Mosquito Control has already sprayed problem spots and will resume fogging as needed.
Anastasia Mosquito Control on Friday said it had finished fogging for the week, and it will reset traps on Monday night to reassess the mosquito population.
As of Thursday, mosquito control technicians had been spraying for the last 10 days and, if the weather permits, they will likely do so until around July 4.
Anastasia Mosquito Control provided a map (below) of the area that may soon be fogged in St. Johns County. Most of the ZIP codes set for fogging are next to a water source, such as the St. Johns River or near the Atlantic Ocean.
Christopher Bibbs, a biologist with Anastasia Mosquito Control, said technicians have already treated parts of Vilano Beach, Nocatee and Palm Valley and are working around the clock.
“Our traps that we put out there are pulling in lots and lots of mosquitoes. We know they are out there,” Bibbs said. “There’s lots of them. They fly far, they’re big, they bite hard and they are usually kind of short-lived."
Floodwater mosquitoes are attracted to moisture and wooded areas. This includes harmless, nuisance mosquitoes, which don’t carry human diseases. But they can impact day-to-day life.
“These are the ones that if you’re out on a jog and you feel like a kind of following feeling and you turn around and realize you have a shadow's worth of mosquitoes behind you, it’s usually things like the floodwater mosquitoes,” Bibbs said.
St. Johns County residents are dealing with the copious amounts of mosquitoes. Fruit Cove resident Alexis Shively said mosquitoes have taken over her backyard to the point where her family can’t enjoy an evening outside.
“I instantly walk out my back door and they are constantly, like, in my eyes. There’s nowhere I can look where they are not right there in my face,” Shively said.
Anastasia Mosquito Control advised keeping repellent nearby around dawn and dusk and emptying out containers around the house that could hold water.
Bibbs said people and pets in the St. Johns County area shouldn’t be alarmed about fogging, the conventional means of spraying insecticide for mosquitoes. Fogging utilizes tiny doses of citrus oil with permethrin, which is found in commonly-used household items such as carpet sprays and lice shampoo.
To see areas to be sprayed or put in a service request, visit the St. Johns County's mosquito control website.