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I am convinced...there are no mosquitos at Disney
- Thread starter LuvMyLatte
- Start date
Surf Fish2285
Member
My first trip they were everywhere!
zweltar
Well-Known Member
Came across this on the interwebs.
=======================
Disney Bites Mosquitoes
By Kevin Spear and Robert Johnson
Sentinel Staff Writers
September 21, 2002
Under laboratory magnification, the corpse of one female mosquito stood out among dozens of others captured in a patch of Walt Disney World swamp: The transparent skin of her swollen abdomen revealed muddy red contents.
She may have gorged on a bird. Disney hopes she didn't **** her bloody meal from the flesh of a guest who paid $50 to get into one of the theme parks.
In Florida, the nation's paradise for mosquitoes, few kill winged biters with the intensity and precision of Disney World. That's particularly critical now that West Nile virus, which has killed more than 80 people nationwide this year, has invaded Florida.
Disney has a full-service mosquito-control operation and even its own skeeter stalker -- Eric Elbert.
Every day, Elbert buttons his oxford shirt tight at the neck and sleeves and goes into the swamps to set and retrieve traps, then back to his lab to produce the equivalent of a behind-enemy-lines warfare scouting report. He details where mosquitoes are hatching, their concentrations, their movements and their diseases. Then he goes home. Killing is left to others, who perform the task without mercy.
Protecting 38 million vacationers a year from disease-carrying mosquitoes in 30 square miles checkered with swamp is like raising free-range chickens on an African savanna filled with starved jackals.
But Disney tries really hard. Crews spray relentlessly. Every morning, every evening.
"Our guests come to Walt Disney World to escape the realities of life, and getting bit by mosquitoes isn't conducive to that," Disney spokeswoman Rena Callahan said. "We work very hard to make sure that our guests have a comfortable experience and fun time."
But Disney can't kill all the pests, and so must tread a fine line.
Letter cautions guests
Scaring guests by telling them they could get the deadly West Nile virus from a mosquito bite means they might not go out at night to shop or visit the shows or restaurants. The entertainment giant has tried to keep guests informed without leaving them terrified. For example, management started handing out letters about five weeks ago at Disney hotels telling guests about the Florida Department of Health's alert for West Nile in Orange County. The letter is printed on colorful Mickey Mouse stationery.
Although the letter avoids using such words as warning or danger, it does caution guests to "Avoid outdoor activities at dusk and dawn when mosquitoes are likely to be active and biting; if you must be outdoors when mosquitoes are active, cover up by wearing shoes, socks, and pants and a long-sleeved shirt; and use mosquito repellent containing DEET according to manufacturers' directions."
The letter does not mention that 1,641 people across the nation have contracted West Nile this year in 31 states and Washington, D.C. The most recent increase in cases is in Illinois.
"We are distributing the letters to all resort guests because we believe it is important information to share, particularly since many of our guests are from other parts of the country and the world and may not be aware of current Florida news," Callahan said.
Disney World also offers free mosquito repellent to golfers on its courses, horseback riders on woodsy trails and campers at the communal bonfire at Fort Wilderness. It's for sale in the theme parks.
Some visitors unaware
Word of the West Nile threat isn't getting to everyone, however.
"We've never heard of it," said Derek Hyndman, an engineer from Scotland who arrived with his wife, Betty, a week ago.
The couple, who are staying at the Royal Plaza hotel at Disney World, hadn't been told to wear repellent -- and it showed. Hyndman, who was wearing a tank top and shorts, pointed to welts on his arms and legs and said: "There are a lot of mosquitoes here. This place is a swamp, after all."
Swamp has its price
Hyndman likely didn't know how right he is. Disney World is not just surrounded by swamp -- much of it is a swamp. The entertainment giant promised not to develop thousands of wetland acres in exchange for permits to build hotels and theme parks.
Disney used wet, densely wooded tracts to naturally seclude golf courses, theme parks and hotels from one another and from support facilities such as the factory-sized laundry and the warehouse-sized vehicle-repair shop. Mosquitoes are very grateful for this. Deep in the wetlands, they hatch in standing water, wiggle through their larval stage and swarm into the twilight just as thousands of Disney guests are getting cranked up for an evening of fun.
Pesticides reduce threat
Spraying clouds of insecticide over guests creates bad PR, so Disney wages its battles along 86 miles of canals, service roads, firebreaks, power lines, fields and fences. They use the same two pesticides widely sprayed all around Florida that are considered safe by state and federal environmental authorities. Employees spray the same routes twice a day, far exceeding the routines of other mosquito districts in Florida.
Toward a perfect world
"Disney shoots for the perfect world, and the perfect world doesn't have mosquitoes," said John Beidler, mosquito-control director in Indian River County for 50 years.
If there's any part of Disney property where the spraying is less thorough, it's at the Fort Wilderness campground. Spray-truck drivers are ordered to skip spots where guests are present, and lots of them are outdoors at the campground. Sometimes 80 percent of Fort Wilderness gets sprayed; sometimes less than 50 percent, said Ray Maxwell, director of the Reedy Creek district.
"We don't want to annoy people with the odor," he said.
Disney is particularly thorough at its Animal Kingdom attraction, Callahan said. None of the exotic creatures on display has come down with West Nile, she said.
Disney's stealth weapon, however, is Elbert, who spends much of life doused in bug repellent.
"I may smell bad, but I won't be bitten," he said.
Several mornings a week, Elbert and an assistant deploy 67 traps around Disney's property.
"That is probably more concentrated than anywhere else," said Mark Latham, Florida Mosquito Control Association president.
To lure mosquitoes, the traps release a continual trickle of carbon dioxide -- the same thing that attracts them to humans. A single trap can net thousands of mosquitoes in a night. Elbert brings the bugs to his no-frills laboratory, drops them in an industrial freezer for a quick death and then counts bodies.
Appreciating the beauty
Using a microscope, he identifies some species by such details as the color of scrotum scales or hair patterns on hind legs. He notes the age of females, when they are full of blood and when they are carrying eggs.
All that staring at one of the world's most hated insects has brought Elbert an appreciation.
"There are some real beautiful mosquitoes," he said, admitting a fondness for long legs and a honey hue.
About half of the 75 species found statewide have been caught on Disney property. But during rainy seasons, the most common is the Culex nigripalpus, the dreaded carrier of West Nile virus and other encephalitis germs.
That's the reason Disney monitors for mosquito-borne diseases with the only "sentinel" chickens in Florida that don't belong to a city or county.
Eight flocks are kept in pens not far from Epcot's 164-foot geodesic dome Spaceship Earth, Cinderella Castle in the Magic Kingdom, and the Fort Wilderness campground, among other popular spots. Disney acknowledges that some of its chickens have contracted West Nile virus, as have chickens in other parts of Central Florida.
Measured by staff and equipment, Disney's mosquito-killing operation is modest.
By comparison, Lee County, in southwest Florida, runs the biggest operation in the nation if not the world. The annual budget of $12 million includes 100 employees and two dozen aircraft for aerial spraying. Mosquito controllers will even perform specialized services, such as ensuring that a backyard wedding can be conducted without the buzzing of unwanted guests.
But if Lee County wages conventional war, Disney employs special-forces-type tactics -- don't harm noncombatants inside the theme parks and stay clear of the demilitarized zones of wetlands.
Dawn patrol
The task is carried out by only seven pickup trucks equipped with sprayers.
At 5 a.m. on a recent morning, the supervisor for spraying, Scott Glasscock, got behind the wheel of one of those trucks. He switched on a flashing light, started the 18-horsepower motor that runs the sprayer, and switched on a gadget that uses satellite positioning to control the flow of pesticide.
Death in a droplet
The fogger at the back of Glasscock's truck churned liquid pesticide into mist so fine it resembled steam or smoke. An ounce becomes billions of droplets that drift through the air like miniature aerial landmines. At 17 microns in diameter, each drop is much tinier than a mosquito eye, which is smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.
Death occurs when a hair on a mosquito snares a droplet, holding it while the bug inhales the pesticide through one of its many breathing orifices. The poison induces a kind of spastic jitterbugging. Mosquitoes die from a fried nervous system in as little as 10 minutes. Even milder doses send them into such a frenzy they break off legs.
Dawn had not yet hinted at the sky when Glasscock finished, having sprayed a part of Disney World that guests would never think of as vacationland. Only now and then did a familiar landmark appear in the distance, such as the top of the Magic Kingdom castle.
"We don't want any guests to be aware of our work," Glasscock said. "It's part of the Disney theme."
=======================
Disney Bites Mosquitoes
By Kevin Spear and Robert Johnson
Sentinel Staff Writers
September 21, 2002
Under laboratory magnification, the corpse of one female mosquito stood out among dozens of others captured in a patch of Walt Disney World swamp: The transparent skin of her swollen abdomen revealed muddy red contents.
She may have gorged on a bird. Disney hopes she didn't **** her bloody meal from the flesh of a guest who paid $50 to get into one of the theme parks.
In Florida, the nation's paradise for mosquitoes, few kill winged biters with the intensity and precision of Disney World. That's particularly critical now that West Nile virus, which has killed more than 80 people nationwide this year, has invaded Florida.
Disney has a full-service mosquito-control operation and even its own skeeter stalker -- Eric Elbert.
Every day, Elbert buttons his oxford shirt tight at the neck and sleeves and goes into the swamps to set and retrieve traps, then back to his lab to produce the equivalent of a behind-enemy-lines warfare scouting report. He details where mosquitoes are hatching, their concentrations, their movements and their diseases. Then he goes home. Killing is left to others, who perform the task without mercy.
Protecting 38 million vacationers a year from disease-carrying mosquitoes in 30 square miles checkered with swamp is like raising free-range chickens on an African savanna filled with starved jackals.
But Disney tries really hard. Crews spray relentlessly. Every morning, every evening.
"Our guests come to Walt Disney World to escape the realities of life, and getting bit by mosquitoes isn't conducive to that," Disney spokeswoman Rena Callahan said. "We work very hard to make sure that our guests have a comfortable experience and fun time."
But Disney can't kill all the pests, and so must tread a fine line.
Letter cautions guests
Scaring guests by telling them they could get the deadly West Nile virus from a mosquito bite means they might not go out at night to shop or visit the shows or restaurants. The entertainment giant has tried to keep guests informed without leaving them terrified. For example, management started handing out letters about five weeks ago at Disney hotels telling guests about the Florida Department of Health's alert for West Nile in Orange County. The letter is printed on colorful Mickey Mouse stationery.
Although the letter avoids using such words as warning or danger, it does caution guests to "Avoid outdoor activities at dusk and dawn when mosquitoes are likely to be active and biting; if you must be outdoors when mosquitoes are active, cover up by wearing shoes, socks, and pants and a long-sleeved shirt; and use mosquito repellent containing DEET according to manufacturers' directions."
The letter does not mention that 1,641 people across the nation have contracted West Nile this year in 31 states and Washington, D.C. The most recent increase in cases is in Illinois.
"We are distributing the letters to all resort guests because we believe it is important information to share, particularly since many of our guests are from other parts of the country and the world and may not be aware of current Florida news," Callahan said.
Disney World also offers free mosquito repellent to golfers on its courses, horseback riders on woodsy trails and campers at the communal bonfire at Fort Wilderness. It's for sale in the theme parks.
Some visitors unaware
Word of the West Nile threat isn't getting to everyone, however.
"We've never heard of it," said Derek Hyndman, an engineer from Scotland who arrived with his wife, Betty, a week ago.
The couple, who are staying at the Royal Plaza hotel at Disney World, hadn't been told to wear repellent -- and it showed. Hyndman, who was wearing a tank top and shorts, pointed to welts on his arms and legs and said: "There are a lot of mosquitoes here. This place is a swamp, after all."
Swamp has its price
Hyndman likely didn't know how right he is. Disney World is not just surrounded by swamp -- much of it is a swamp. The entertainment giant promised not to develop thousands of wetland acres in exchange for permits to build hotels and theme parks.
Disney used wet, densely wooded tracts to naturally seclude golf courses, theme parks and hotels from one another and from support facilities such as the factory-sized laundry and the warehouse-sized vehicle-repair shop. Mosquitoes are very grateful for this. Deep in the wetlands, they hatch in standing water, wiggle through their larval stage and swarm into the twilight just as thousands of Disney guests are getting cranked up for an evening of fun.
Pesticides reduce threat
Spraying clouds of insecticide over guests creates bad PR, so Disney wages its battles along 86 miles of canals, service roads, firebreaks, power lines, fields and fences. They use the same two pesticides widely sprayed all around Florida that are considered safe by state and federal environmental authorities. Employees spray the same routes twice a day, far exceeding the routines of other mosquito districts in Florida.
Toward a perfect world
"Disney shoots for the perfect world, and the perfect world doesn't have mosquitoes," said John Beidler, mosquito-control director in Indian River County for 50 years.
If there's any part of Disney property where the spraying is less thorough, it's at the Fort Wilderness campground. Spray-truck drivers are ordered to skip spots where guests are present, and lots of them are outdoors at the campground. Sometimes 80 percent of Fort Wilderness gets sprayed; sometimes less than 50 percent, said Ray Maxwell, director of the Reedy Creek district.
"We don't want to annoy people with the odor," he said.
Disney is particularly thorough at its Animal Kingdom attraction, Callahan said. None of the exotic creatures on display has come down with West Nile, she said.
Disney's stealth weapon, however, is Elbert, who spends much of life doused in bug repellent.
"I may smell bad, but I won't be bitten," he said.
Several mornings a week, Elbert and an assistant deploy 67 traps around Disney's property.
"That is probably more concentrated than anywhere else," said Mark Latham, Florida Mosquito Control Association president.
To lure mosquitoes, the traps release a continual trickle of carbon dioxide -- the same thing that attracts them to humans. A single trap can net thousands of mosquitoes in a night. Elbert brings the bugs to his no-frills laboratory, drops them in an industrial freezer for a quick death and then counts bodies.
Appreciating the beauty
Using a microscope, he identifies some species by such details as the color of scrotum scales or hair patterns on hind legs. He notes the age of females, when they are full of blood and when they are carrying eggs.
All that staring at one of the world's most hated insects has brought Elbert an appreciation.
"There are some real beautiful mosquitoes," he said, admitting a fondness for long legs and a honey hue.
About half of the 75 species found statewide have been caught on Disney property. But during rainy seasons, the most common is the Culex nigripalpus, the dreaded carrier of West Nile virus and other encephalitis germs.
That's the reason Disney monitors for mosquito-borne diseases with the only "sentinel" chickens in Florida that don't belong to a city or county.
Eight flocks are kept in pens not far from Epcot's 164-foot geodesic dome Spaceship Earth, Cinderella Castle in the Magic Kingdom, and the Fort Wilderness campground, among other popular spots. Disney acknowledges that some of its chickens have contracted West Nile virus, as have chickens in other parts of Central Florida.
Measured by staff and equipment, Disney's mosquito-killing operation is modest.
By comparison, Lee County, in southwest Florida, runs the biggest operation in the nation if not the world. The annual budget of $12 million includes 100 employees and two dozen aircraft for aerial spraying. Mosquito controllers will even perform specialized services, such as ensuring that a backyard wedding can be conducted without the buzzing of unwanted guests.
But if Lee County wages conventional war, Disney employs special-forces-type tactics -- don't harm noncombatants inside the theme parks and stay clear of the demilitarized zones of wetlands.
Dawn patrol
The task is carried out by only seven pickup trucks equipped with sprayers.
At 5 a.m. on a recent morning, the supervisor for spraying, Scott Glasscock, got behind the wheel of one of those trucks. He switched on a flashing light, started the 18-horsepower motor that runs the sprayer, and switched on a gadget that uses satellite positioning to control the flow of pesticide.
Death in a droplet
The fogger at the back of Glasscock's truck churned liquid pesticide into mist so fine it resembled steam or smoke. An ounce becomes billions of droplets that drift through the air like miniature aerial landmines. At 17 microns in diameter, each drop is much tinier than a mosquito eye, which is smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.
Death occurs when a hair on a mosquito snares a droplet, holding it while the bug inhales the pesticide through one of its many breathing orifices. The poison induces a kind of spastic jitterbugging. Mosquitoes die from a fried nervous system in as little as 10 minutes. Even milder doses send them into such a frenzy they break off legs.
Dawn had not yet hinted at the sky when Glasscock finished, having sprayed a part of Disney World that guests would never think of as vacationland. Only now and then did a familiar landmark appear in the distance, such as the top of the Magic Kingdom castle.
"We don't want any guests to be aware of our work," Glasscock said. "It's part of the Disney theme."
The Incredible Schmulk
Well-Known Member
I've gotta say, having grown up in Central Florida and knowing exactly what the bugs are like in the area, I'm astounded by how well they control the mosquito population in Disney. I'm with the OP in that I can't recall ever being bitten on property.
I'm sure that there are mosquito havens out there somewhere in the vast Disney expanses, but I've yet to come across one.
I'm sure that there are mosquito havens out there somewhere in the vast Disney expanses, but I've yet to come across one.
slappy magoo
Well-Known Member
I've never been bitten, but the mosquitoes loves them some of my wife's legs. She had "Off!" wipes with her one night when we were eating dinner at the Rose and Crown on their terrace, and she had to use them early and often. Didn't seem to ever work 100%.
spectromagic04
Well-Known Member
Out of all the times we went to many to count. We have never got bitten by mosquitos.
NutsForFlorida
Well-Known Member
Mosquitos are pretty bad in MN too. A lot of forest areas and lakes. Some people are convinced that the mosquito is our state bird. Sometimes I have to agree with them.
graphite1326
Well-Known Member
Your key card lets off a high pitched sound that mosquitos don't like.
Disney thinks of everything.
Disney thinks of everything.
unkadug
Follower of "Saget"The Cult
Minnesota is such a beautiful state though. I love the boundary waters area. :wave:
Isn't the Loon the state bird? I always have more trouble with those HUGE biting flies up there than the mosquitoes.
palmage
Member
Deer Flies and Horse Flies.........Mosquitoes are the state bird.Minnesota is such a beautiful state though. I love the boundary waters area. :wave:
Isn't the Loon the state bird? I always have more trouble with those HUGE biting flies up there than the mosquitoes.
unkadug
Follower of "Saget"The Cult
We have those down here...these are DIFFERENT. :lol:
Mammymouse
Well-Known Member
Thanks zweltar, that was such a great post. It explains everything. I've wondered for years why there virtually were no flying pests.
bladerunner
Member
I don't ever have a problem with mosquitos at Disney but my wife does. Monday night watching the MSEP at MK she was complaining and did get bit a few times.
BigRedDad
Well-Known Member
In general, mosquitoes and bugs will tend to go towards certain scents over another. This is one reason why women tend to be affected more than men. Many women use those soaps, sprays, or whatever that have natural oils and scents in them that attract bugs. Guys, BO just takes care of it .
Disney does all they can to minimize flying, biting insects, but they are still at the mercy of nature. FL in general comes up with brilliant ways of getting rid of mosquitoes. They brought in those ugly African Toads because they will eliminate mosquito populations. Well, that didn't work and South FL is infested with those nauseating things.
Noseeums: Little gnat like things also known as sand fleas. Primarily at beaches, but have flocked to other areas where there is abundant water and humidity.
Horse and Deer flies: much larger than a regular fly and they sting like a beast for a few minutes.
Bees, hornets, wasps, yellow jackets: Each has their own level of pain. Bees and Yellow Jackets are primarily a non-issue unless you threaten them. Once you swat at one, you can cause yourself some misery. Wasps and hornets are a different story. They can be aggressive. Since they do not die after stinging, they may just fly up and sting for no reason. They hurt like a $%$^*. The worst part about hornets is they can make nests in ground. People have stepped in them and paid the ultimate price.
. Disney does all they can to minimize flying, biting insects, but they are still at the mercy of nature. FL in general comes up with brilliant ways of getting rid of mosquitoes. They brought in those ugly African Toads because they will eliminate mosquito populations. Well, that didn't work and South FL is infested with those nauseating things.
Noseeums: Little gnat like things also known as sand fleas. Primarily at beaches, but have flocked to other areas where there is abundant water and humidity.
Horse and Deer flies: much larger than a regular fly and they sting like a beast for a few minutes.
Bees, hornets, wasps, yellow jackets: Each has their own level of pain. Bees and Yellow Jackets are primarily a non-issue unless you threaten them. Once you swat at one, you can cause yourself some misery. Wasps and hornets are a different story. They can be aggressive. Since they do not die after stinging, they may just fly up and sting for no reason. They hurt like a $%$^*. The worst part about hornets is they can make nests in ground. People have stepped in them and paid the ultimate price.
Pumbas Nakasak
Heading for the great escape.
They are attracted to the corpses.
NutsForFlorida
Well-Known Member
Yes, the Loon is the state bird, officially. MN is a beautiful state, I just wish it wasn't so cold. I grew up in Duluth right on Lake Superior. We never had an air conditioner or central air in the house. Lake Superior cools everything down. Now, I'm in the Minneapolis area, which is about 2 hours south of Duluth. I run my central air all summer long. It's that much different in temperatures.Minnesota is such a beautiful state though. I love the boundary waters area. :wave:
Isn't the Loon the state bird? I always have more trouble with those HUGE biting flies up there than the mosquitoes.
Bravo 229
Member
You may never find any bugs in the parks and resorts, but if you ever get the chance to venture over to the golf courses, you'll see where all of the bugs are! I played at Lake Buena Vista a few weeks ago, wore pants and still got hammered by the mosquitos.
disney4life2008
Well-Known Member
Disney does a wonderful job of keeping bugs pain free. However, there are mosquitos! last November, I got eaten alive on my leg and feet!!
Thebrerrabbit
Member
just seagulls