MIAMI – With a dozen local cases of Zika now confirmed in a single neighborhood, Miami-Dade County officials are ramping up efforts to combat the urban mosquito blamed for spreading the virus.
A team of 12 inspectors was increased to 32 on Tuesday. More personnel will be added if needed, said public works spokeswoman Gayle Love.
Outreach efforts that began in February after Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency are also being increased. Over the weekend, the school district used its robocall system to warn the families of some 355,000 schoolchildren to be on alert.
But some experts question whether the added measures are too little, too late.
"They are underfunded and undermanned," said Ed Fussell, former chief of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, which spent $10 million last year to kill the insects — more than five times Miami-Dade's typical annual mosquito control budget.
The mosquitoes blamed for carrying the Zika virus and other diseases, the Aedes aegypti, is evolved to follow humans and has become adept at hiding in their neighborhoods, feeding on their blood. That means aerial spraying used to control marsh mosquitoes is usually ineffective. Truck spraying also typically fails to reach the hiding places of the females, which after a bite retreat to a wet dark place to lay eggs that take about a week to hatch. That leaves the simplest but most time-consuming and labor intensive effort: boots on the ground.
