In July, an outbreak of dengue fever, once thought to have been eradicated in Florida, occurred in Martin County, just north of Palm Beach on the east coast. Twenty people developed the disease, which causes flulike symptoms and extreme aches.
Mosquito control officials are worried that dengue has established a foothold in Florida. The last outbreak — and the first in the state in about 70 years — was in 2009 and 2010, when dengue fever hit Key West.
The problem appears to be contained for now, in large part because the area is small and Florida is well seasoned in the art of mosquito warfare.
“Florida is certainly among the leaders in the world in professional mosquito control,” said Walter Tabachnick, a professor at the University of Florida’s medical entomology laboratory. “Prior to that, this was not a very nice place to live in.”
Imbued with Darwinian strength, the Aedes aegypti, commonly known as the Dengue mosquito because it carries the disease, is a survivalist that breeds and lives in towns and cities. It can encamp inside a bottle cap, under a house or in any container holding water, making it difficult to find and kill.
Fighting them is akin to urban warfare: armed with spray in hand-held devices, mosquito fighters go yard to yard and house to house. They warn residents to remove any containers that can fill with water or tip them over after a rainfall.
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