Mosquitoes

Health alerts are in effect for several counties in Florida as officials monitor mosquito-borne illnesses after heavy rainfall.

Eight people in Hillsborough and two in Pinellas recently contracted the mosquito-borne illness locally, officials say. Both counties are under alerts. The disease is not endemic to the Tampa Bay region.

City councilman Bill Carlson says he has a “win-win-win” stadium plan that can benefit Tampa and Rays fans and won’t use sales taxes or increase property taxes.

The Florida Department of Health offices in both counties said they are working with mosquito control agencies to monitor and respond to the cases.

This week, “Florida Matters Live & Local” is revisiting some of our best conversations from the year.

Google put in a proposal to the Environmental Protection Agency to release 32 million mosquitoes in Florida over two years. But it may not be as bad as it sounds.

If passed, the state's mosquito control districts that rely on ad valorem taxes could lose a third of their funding, according to the Florida Mosquito Control Association.

Researchers put tiny “cones of shame” onto mice to help unravel what happens on a cellular level when an itch gets scratched or not.

Multiple reported U.S. screwworm cases have drawn news coverage as has a request from researchers with Google’s Debug project asking to release millions of mosquitoes in Florida and California.

The recent death of a woman sleeping in an alley has stirred homeless advocates against the state’s ban on public camping. Is the law necessary or simply driving our most vulnerable into dark, dangerous places?

The district developed a strain of male mosquitoes native to Captiva and Fort Myers, and sterilizes them via X-ray. The goal is for the insects to mate with female mosquitoes, resulting in eggs that won't hatch.

Mosquito control groups are hard at work during the drought, making sure today's low mosquito count doesn't become a population boom.