The Pasco County Mosquito Control District (PCMCD) was created by the Pasco County Board of Commissioners as the result of a referendum vote in the summer of 1951 and established as the West Pasco County Mosquito Control District. The District expanded five times since its establishment. On each occasion in 1978, 1981, 1986, 2002, and 2003, the expansion process was initiated by petition at the grass roots level by the residents within a voting precinct that was adjacent to the District. Petitions were first presented to the 3-member Mosquito Control Board for approval and then to the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners for authorization via public meetings.

Originally, District personnel included three Commissioners plus one individual who drove a truck which was used to spray for adult mosquitoes. Within a few years, we were also applying pesticides to mosquito larvae and the Florida State Board of Health was providing us with engineering and entomological support so that we could ditch many of our coastal salt marshes and several nearby freshwater sites. Improvements were made to drain standing water, thus preventing mosquito production. Ditching and subsequent ditch cleaning was one of our major efforts up through about 1990.

During the past 25 years, we have continued to develop our larviciding and adulticiding capabilities, and focused on new technologies that use GPS guidance, improved formulations and customized software to assist us in our efforts. We have also focused on tire removal and aquatic weed control since they are both associated with producing mosquitoes.

We currently are one of the recognized leaders in our field, and often are called upon for advice and assistance. We boast a compliment of 30+ cross-trained employees with an additional 10-15 part time seasonal staff. Our staff is very busy during the summer months, conducting inspections, collecting and identifying mosquitoes from the 70+ traps we maintain throughout the District, and controlling both larvae and adult mosquitoes when found in sufficient numbers. During the drier winter months we focus on training, continued education, equipment maintenance, and site access.