Mosquitoes are a nuisance at any time in Florida, but especially in the doldrums of September. In the hot, rainy summer months, most people spend less time in their yards, so you may not have noticed breeding sites that mosquitoes have turned into their own maternity wards. However, Hillsborough County Mosquito Management Service has voted on the top 5 places county residents are allowing mosquitoes to breed. Here’s where to look.
Top 5 mosquito breeding sites
Plants that retain water
Foliage like bromeliads or traveler palms are designed by nature to hold water, and they are tough to “dump out” when the water becomes a mosquito- breeding ground.re
Clogged gutters
Clean them out!
Tarps
Boat tarps, grill tarps, ill-fitting tarps, discarded tarps – they protect your valuables from the weather, but if they don’t fit correctly, they are perfect for collecting water. Every time the inspections team sees a tarp on a boat, that’s the first place they look.
Kid toys
This includes treehouses, plastic play forts, in the bushes, or behind the shed, where children may have left toys and other plastic objects that will hold water.
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Shed area
It’s Florida, and very few residents have a basement for storage so the backyard shed is an obvious site for discarded items that can collect water. Old trash cans, old recycle bins, or even PVC pipes from the last home improvement project can become a real problem behind the shed where nobody is looking.
Here are some other areas to watch out for:
- Unkept pools or spas
- Flowerpots
- AC unit runoff pipes
- Accordion-style gutter extenders
- Fire pits
- Kayaks/canoes
- Birdbaths
- Old tires
- Pet water bowls
Hillsborough County Mosquito Management Services (MMS) also does free inspections at the homes of Hillsborough residents who are experiencing unusually high mosquito activity. Mosquitoes can breed in as little as a bottlecap full of water, so there are often plenty of places that collect water without residents even noticing.
