Florida country to battle mosquitoes through federal drones program. The Lee County Mosquito Control District has won federal approval to ramp up drone use for pest maintenance.
The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District is going to spend the summer using drones to spread larvicide over the salt marshes that annoying and potentially infectious mosquitoes use as breeding grounds.
A high-tech attempt to keep the pests’ population in check, and one that stands to save the state a great deal of money, officials say.
The mosquito control organization already uses drones to search for remote pools of standing water. Now the drones will be able to carry seven or eight pounds of larvicide enough to spray up to two acres.
So that they can treat these remote pools themselves, a task usually assigned to expensive helicopters.
“It’s only treating very small areas,” Florida Keys Mosquito Control District executive director Andrea Leal told “We want to make sure that we’re precise with this. It’s really starting out, seeing exactly what this can do for us.”