Marcus McDonough, director of Volusia County Mosquito Control, described the county’s approach to mosquito surveillance and control in an interview on the Volusia County podcast “It’s Giving Government,” saying staff balance nuisance management, public-health surveillance and environmental concerns.

“Ten mosquitoes trying to land on you over a one-minute period is our treatment threshold,” McDonough said, describing a standard landing-rate test inspectors use to decide when to treat an area. He said the program pairs that metric with trap data, disease surveillance and citizen reports to prioritize response.

The threshold and other surveillance measures matter because mosquitoes affect both tourism and residents, McDonough said. Volusia County’s Mosquito Control began as the East Volusia Mosquito Abatement District in 1937, he said, and its remit includes reducing nuisance biting as well as monitoring mosquito-borne diseases.

McDonough outlined three central surveillance and response tools: sentinel chickens for disease detection, mosquito fish that eat larvae in standing water, and trap-and-landing-rate monitoring to identify when control is warranted. “Chickens are a good surveillance tool to look for mosquito-borne diseases,” he said, noting the flock provides weekly blood samples checked for antibodies to West Nile virus, eastern equine encephalitis and St. Louis encephalitis.

On larval control, McDonough said mosquito fish (Gambusia affinis) are used in roadside ditches, neglected pools and other persistent standing-water habitats. For adult mosquitoes, the program uses truck-mounted ultra-low-volume (ULV) foggers at night and contracts aerial applications—helicopter or airplane—when large or inaccessible areas require treatment.

McDonough described an evolving toolbox that now includes unmanned aircraft systems (drones) to treat smaller or complex areas that are impractical for helicopters or ground crews. “The helicopters are like the riding lawnmower; the drones are like the trimmer,” he said, describing the drones’ role in treating edges and small patches the larger equipment misses.

He emphasized integrated pest management (IPM) rather than routine blanket spraying. “We utilize an approach called integrated pest management where we have to accept that some mosquitoes are okay,” McDonough said, explaining that indiscriminate spraying can create resistance and is less environmentally sensitive. He said the county targets larvae when possible and uses larvicides derived from naturally occurring bacteria and insect hormones that disrupt development.

McDonough addressed safety and non-target species. For ULV adult treatments he gave a visual: “One ounce of a shot spread evenly over a football field,” to describe the very small amount of product applied. He said crews spray at night when mosquitoes are active and bees are in hives, and the ULV spray is nonresidual and requires contact with the insect to work. The program maintains a hive-location layer on its spray maps and consults state beekeeper lists and beekeeper reports to avoid direct treatments over known hives.

The director also covered common sources of container-breeding mosquitoes around homes—plant saucers, bird baths, bromeliads and tarps—and urged weekly emptying or maintenance. He noted that some domestically important Aedes species—Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus—breed in small amounts of water and are active during daylight, unlike many nighttime species. McDonough advised using EPA-registered repellents, wearing long sleeves during peak activity times, and using fans or screens to reduce exposure.

On weather impacts, McDonough said egg-laying strategies make some species resilient: eggs laid along water edges may remain dormant until flooding refills them, so storm and rain cycles can release generations from earlier seasons. He said salt-marsh mosquitoes are a long-standing coastal challenge; Volusia County has roughly 50,000 acres of salt marsh that produce large, mobile mosquito populations and sometimes require aerial response.

McDonough described success as reducing populations to tolerable levels rather than eliminating them. He said even a 50% reduction at a high-count trap can be a meaningful operational success. The program coordinates closely with the county health department on clinical disease cases and responds to citizen service requests across both the district and incorporated areas when cities reimburse for services.

The podcast hosts asked about scope and partnerships; McDonough said the county operates a special taxing district covering the eastern half of Volusia County (the program’s historic East Volusia origins) and that the county also works with cities on the west side when those municipalities request and pay for services.

McDonough described additional routine practices—weekly blood draws from sentinel chickens, routine trap monitoring, larval dipping with a standard cup-and-stick method, targeted larviciding and public education at schools and community events—and reiterated that many control options are biological or nonchemical. He said the program’s aims are responsiveness to residents’ complaints and reducing disease risk while limiting environmental impacts.

The interview concluded with McDonough urging realistic expectations: “Zero mosquitoes isn’t a realistic goal,” he said, adding that the program’s goal is to manage mosquito populations to tolerable levels and to give residents tools to reduce exposure.