Two thousand tiny fish from Central Florida swam around in a clear bag Friday morning in downtown Clearwater. They arrived for a simple task: Eat mosquito larvae.
“What’s great is we’re going to put 2,000 of the fish into this pond today, but then they will breed, and they will spread,” said Cassie Cordova, Clearwater’s sustainability and environmental division manager, standing in front of Prospect Lake. “Six months from now, there could be 10 times as many.”
Cases of dengue fever are rising in Tampa Bay and across the state. Clearwater is deploying the small, but mighty, mosquitofish to eat larvae and support a regional effort to combat the spread of the disease. The city on Friday released 10,000 mosquitofish in four lakes: Prospect, Glen Oaks, Moccasin and Salls.
The releases come after all of Tampa Bay’s county governments this week declared states of emergency over dengue fever, a tropical disease that caused the death of a Hillsborough woman this month.
Cordova said the city picked Friday’s locations based on complaints officials have received about mosquito bites. The city purchased an additional 31,000 mosquitofish, which Cordova said the city will release in seven to eight other bodies of water.
Mosquitofish, which are also known as Gambusia, are native to Florida and can eat up to 100 mosquito larvae daily.
Hillsborough and Pinellas counties declared states of emergency Thursday in response to dengue. Pasco County declared a state of emergency Wednesday.
“These mosquitoes that carry the dengue fever, they can breed in very small bodies of water, like as small as a bottle cap,” Cordova said.
As of Sept. 19, there have been 160 reported cases of dengue in Hillsborough, according to the Florida Department of Health. Pinellas has reported seven, and Pasco has reported two. The death of Gay Small of Tampa earlier this month was the first attributed to the disease in nearly 100 years in Tampa Bay.
At a Pinellas commission meeting Thursday, County Administrator Barry Burton said his government may spend an additional $1 million on mosquito treatment services, including for spray and overtime pay.
Clearwater officials are also using tablets that dissolve in water and attack mosquito larvae without harming other marine life. Hillsborough County gives out free mosquitofish during spring and summer, and residents in Pinellas can request them from the county.
Officials are encouraging residents to stay vigilant and dump any standing water they find — whether that be in tires, pool covers or garbage cans.
“There does have to be a level of personal accountability,” said Jarett Hood, division chief of emergency management for Clearwater Fire and Rescue. “It’s a collaboration between the city and the county and all of the citizens to really make sure that this doesn’t get out of control.”
