This is the time of year that mosquitoes thrive and homeowners can help control the local mosquito population by removing standing water from their properties

 This is the time of year that mosquitoes thrive and homeowners can help control the local mosquito population by removing standing water from their properties.

Mosquitoes, particularly the aedes aegypti mosquito, are known to carry dangerous diseases, including the Zika virus,West Nile, Eastern Equine encephalitis and Dengue Fever just to name a few.

The Orange County Department of Health recently warned residents that the Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus was detected in chickens in the county, Alachua County also detected the illness in chickens during their most recent round of testing  

There are no vaccines for many mosquito borne diseases, so the best protection is to limit where the mosquitoes can breed.

The aedes aegypti mosquito only breeds in standing water, but they don’t need much.

They can breed in water in tires and birdbaths, but also in smaller spaces like bottle caps and cans.

Anything that holds water is a potential breeding site so the more items you can remove from your yard the better the chance of removing dangerous mosquitoes.

And don’t miss the obvious breeding sites like tarps, clogged gutters and drainage ditches and leaking outdoor faucets.

And remember, if you have any mosquito related concerns, call the Franklin County Mosquito control Department at 670- 8730.

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