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Osceola County Will Use Aerial Spraying To Control Mosquitoes

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
Jeff Zenner
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

Osceola County officials plan to use aerial spraying to control mosquitoes in rural areas.

 

The insecticide being used, naled, has become a controversial chemical in recent weeks, drawing protests in South Florida. South Florida officials are using it to combat the spread of Zika. Spraying naled during the day means other insects, including bees, can be killed; millions of bees were killed earlier this year in South Carolina, likely from the use of naled.

 

Osceola is spraying for a different mosquito, though, and is spraying in the evening, when most bees will be back in their hives.

 

“It’s important to note that these treatments are not related to Zika in any way but are in response to ‘flood water’ mosquitoes from standing water left behind from recent rains,” the county wrote in a news release.

 

The European Union banned naled in 2012, but to protect workers who come into contact with the pesticide. The concentrations sprayed are about a teaspoon over a football field – an amount the EPA has deemed safe.

Health News Florida reporter Abe Aboraya works for WMFE in Orlando. He started writing for newspapers in high school. After graduating from the University of Central Florida in 2007, he spent a year traveling and working as a freelance reporter for the Seattle Times and the Seattle Weekly, and working for local news websites in the San Francisco Bay area. Most recently Abe worked as a reporter for the Orlando Business Journal. He comes from a family of health care workers.