I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment. Of the 75 mosquito species found in Florida, only one carries a disease harmful to humans. Florida has probably got one of the best, if not the best, mosquito control operations, statewide, in the country. Don Barnard is a research entomologist. In the development of way s to control these things biologically or with genetic mechanisms or biochemically, using some of their own physiology and their own bodily functions in a way that we can control the mosquito population.
Mosquitoes get sick just like human beings do.
And they get diseased and the diseases are caused by pathogens, just like viruses or bacteria that infect human beings. One of the projects we have is to develop a pathogen that attacks and kills Yellow Fever Mosquitoes and Asian Tiger Mosquitoes. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education.