By James Clauson, Director, Beach Mosquito Control District
Mosquitoes love springtime. With the warmer temperatures and longer days, the mosquitoes come out in force. They are hungry and are looking for their first blood meal of the season. Only the female takes blood and both male and female need the sugar in nectar to produce the energy needed to fly and look for that unsuspecting blood donor.
Beach Mosquito Control District is a local Governmental Independent Special District established in 1952. The district is located in the Panama City Beach area, from the Walton County line on the west, to the Hathaway Bridge on the east, south of the intercoastal waterway. We are a very progressive and forward-thinking mosquito control district that utilizes the latest integrated mosquito management methodology. Our employees are all professionals that have extensive knowledge, training, and experience.
Beach Mosquito Control District uses an extensive surveillance system to locate and identify the many mosquito species in our district. By knowing where the mosquitoes breed, we can treat the water and prevent the larva from emerging as flying adult mosquitoes. This surveillance also triggers our control measures, both larviciding and adulticiding. We also identify and track any mosquito virus transmission via our extensive arbovirus surveillance system and our mosquito pooling system. We collect mosquitoes and speciate them and send them to the State of Florida, Department of Health Lab in Tampa, for evaluation. If there is any arbovirus present, the Lab notifies us, and we ramp up control measures. We are mostly concerned with EEE (Eastern Equine Encephalitis) and WNV (West Nile Virus).
Lastly, as mentioned, we are a tax-based organization. We encourage the residents and visitors to our beautiful area to call us at (850) 233-5030 or go to our website at www.pcbeachmosquito.org and put in a service request, free of charge, if they are being bothered by mosquitoes.
We are here to serve the public in the most effective, efficient, and professional manner possible to keep everyone free from mosquito bites and to keep our public safe from possible mosquito-borne diseases.
