The 36-year-old resident lives near Lake Dora and said she recently began noticing the swarms of insects — commonly dubbed blind mosquitoes — setting up camp on her family’s house, mailbox and hedges.
“I almost didn’t want to take the kids to school because it was that bad,” she said, explaining they have to swat the pests away to get to the truck.
Experts say the midge population is at its peak between April and November and the annoyances often travel in a cloud on a wind current in areas near large bodies of water.
“When the imbalance of the macroinvertebrate community happens, you lose your dragonflies and mayflies that predate on them and they become the dominant species,” said Gloria Eby, an environmental scientist and director of Seminole County’s mosquito-control program.
Central Florida officials said mosquito-control units take measures to mitigate the pests during breeding season but that midges aren’t a high priority. The blind mosquitoes don’t bite or transmit diseases and are often seen simply as an extreme nuisance.
Blind mosquitoes — which, despite their moniker, can see — have a short life span and multiple quickly, which make it impossible to eradicate them from an area.
Susan Gosselin, Osceola County director of mosquito control, said local and state funding is geared toward eliminating the harmful species that can carry deadly diseases such as malaria and the Zika virus.
Last year, Florida had 105 total Zika cases — including 12 in Orange County and one in Seminole, according to the Florida Department of Health. All but two of the total cases were travel related.
“Even though it’s not front and center in the news right now, [Zika] is still a problem and it’s still out there,” Gosselin said, adding that residents should get rid of any standing water and cover their skin when outdoors.
Lake County Mosquito Control said crews routinely sprays for all mosquitoes, including midges, in areas surrounding lakes but doesn’t treat the lakes themselves because of cost and environmental factors.
Many pest-control companies offer midge services in Central Florida and a search for home remedies on the internet includes spraying a garlic or vinegar solution outside your home and leaving cotton balls soaked in peppermint by the doorways.
Orange County mosquito control manager Steve Harrison said technicians respond to resident complaints and determine whether the insects are mosquitoes or midges. If it turns out to be blind mosquitoes, the most common recommendation is limiting light sources that attract the insects, especially at night.
“It’s just a Band-Aid with some of this,” Harrison said. “The sheer volume of midges in some areas, even those controls aren’t effective.”
One man posted on Facebook a guaranteed way for those wishing to avoid the pesky bugs.
“The solution,” he wrote, “is to hop onto I-95 north and go about 900 miles. That’ll get rid of them.”
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