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Got itch? Try 'Tip and Turn' method to get rid of pesky mosquitos

Collier Mosquito Control District Executive Director Patrick Linn said there is typically an increase in mosquito populations about 7 to 10 days after a heavy rain, so placing the mosquito traps around homes and businesses in the coming week will help provide protection and relief after the latest storm.
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Special to WGCU
Placing mosquito traps around homes and businesses 7 to 10 days after a heavy rain will help provide protection and relief.

Mosquitoes often plague outdoor activities in Florida. It’s warm. Could you blame them? The state humid. It’s wet– everything a mosquito needs to survive year around here.

Throw in the fact that female mosquito can lay between 100 and 300 eggs in her short — just-a-few-weeks-long — lifetime, and together the end result can mean a whole lot of swatting ,scratching and even serious sickness.

Places like Clewiston are havens for mosquito infestations, says Lita Honsley a contract manager for Vector Disease Control overseeing the city’s mosquito control efforts. She is addressed the city council recently.

"You have the Everglades. You have all these sugar cane fields that breed mosquitoes heavily," she explained. " You got Okeechobee Lake back there. So even if we sprayed every night like you've got so much outside habitat for mosquitoes that you guys just get inundated with them.”

Honsley has some advice for combating the little buggers before they take flight and become nuisances. She calls it “Tip and Turn.”

“Just take a quick lap around your property. And if you see anything that can collect water, just tip it over or get rid of it. It can takes a cap full — just a bottle cap full of water — can breed mosquitoes," she said.

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