JACKSONVILLE, Fla.-- Duval County is loaded up and ready to fight the battle of the bug.
"Right now. Summertime, it's pretty bad," Peterre Ppucci said.
There's ground operations, larvaeciding, fog trucks and left handed jeeps. And the biggest trick of all-- aerial spraying.
"We've more than doubled our average number of missions this year on the aerial side," John Shellhorn said.
Shellhorn, Division Chief for the Mosquito Control Division in Duval County-- says stagnant water from Tropical Storms Beryl and Debby, plus West Nile forced them to beef up efforts.
The spraying may inconvenience some-- but he says, have no fear.
"We do get concerns periodically, and we tell the people the chemicals used in our trucks are EPA approved. They have been tested," he said.
Last year, there were 20 cases of West Nile in Duval County by the end of September. So far in 2012-- there are 15 cases, with a whole month of peak mosquito breeding left.
Up in Nassau...things got so rough, the state had to come in to assist. Shellhorn says, as for Duval, they'll continue to put their best foot...or should we say spray...forward.
"We're doing the best we can to bring the numbers down, but it's obvious the virus still appears to be out there among mosquito populations, and it's still there," he said.
You can protect yourselves from mosquitoes by wearing long sleeved clothing, limiting your outdoor activity in the morning and evening, and wearing bug repellent with the ingredient "DEET."
