PASCO COUNTY MOSQUITO CONTROL DISTRICT


FOUNDED 1951


FIRST HELICOPTER Hughes TH-55 in 1989


CURRENT HELICOPTERS Airbus H125 (two)


TREATMENT AREA 868 mi2


/2,248 km2


EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Adriane Rogers


CHIEF PILOT Wayne Daniels


disease. The bacterial agent is typically delivered in pellet form, fl ung outboard from hoppers on either side of the aircraft. If the mosquitoes are not defeated as larvae, helicopters can apply plant-based


poisons or synthetic versions of them. Booms jut out from the fuselage to deliver liquid to nozzles and fans that atomize it and spread the resultant mist. Because the poisons are also harmful to bees and butterfl ies, very low volumes


of these solutions are applied, and such missions are fl own after most of those desirable insects are already bedded down for the night or not yet up in the morning. Fortunately for the mosquito hunters, evening and dawn are when mosquitoes are most active anyway.


Glamorous? No. Important? Absolutely. Some sectors in our industry have more cachet than others. Dwayne Johnson probably isn’t going to play a mosquito-control helicopter pilot any time soon. But in Florida, I came away with considerable respect for the care and precision with which these fl ight and ground crews conduct their lifesaving missions.


Above: Pasco County flies two new H125 helicopters. They are used for surveillance of otherwise hard-to-reach areas and for treating large expanses of forest, swamp, standing water, and open fields.


Right: Collier Mosquito Control District flies a pair of MDHI MD 500D helicopters—this one is dispensing larvicidal pellets onto swampland—as well as a Bell 407 (inset).


56 ROTOR SEPTEMBER 2021


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