Why Are There No Mosquitoes at Disney World?

preview_player
Показать описание
Walt Disney World is smack dab in the middle of a swamp in a state that is, more or less, a big swamp itself. So with that in mind, why isn’t Walt Disney World swarming with mosquitoes?

New here? Be sure to subscribe!

My Patreon!

My Disney History Book List!

My Disney Podcast!

Follow me on Twitter!

An additional thanks to my Patrons!
🏆 Mallory Craig 🏆 Heath Farrell 🏆John Gundlach 🏆 Braden Foster 🏆 Allison Ganzhorn 🏆 Rafael Gorrochotegui 🏆 Andres Gutierrez 🏆 Kevin Hitchcock 🏆 Matthew Hyndman 🏆 Ross Kratter 🏆 Christine Mahin 🏆 Nathan Peschke 🏆 Juan Sepulveda 🏆 John Shoemaker 🏆 Samantha Silverstein 🏆 Brent T Gleason 🏆 Shawndelle Young 🏆 Thomas 🏆 Michael Gorzkowski 🏆 Tracy Funk 🏆Martin Lohr 🏆 Marc DiFilippo 🏆Don Duncan 🏆 Scott Robertson 🏆 Meghan Franklin 🏆 Joshua Sheha 🏆 Victoria Luu 🏆Deborah Malcolm 🏆

How? Well they don’t have any particularly special weapon that isn’t used elsewhere in the world. Disney’s arsenal includes insecticides which kill mosquitoes fairly quickly, growth regulators which reduce their lifespan, and maintaining natural predators in the area that eat the bugs as part of their diet. On their own, they’re all methods that many other places employ to deal with the annoying bugs. However the impressive part is the vigilance and precision in which Disney carries out these methods.

It all begins with the Mosquito Surveillance Program which is an element of the Department of Planning and Engineering for the Reedy Creek Improvement District. The Improvement District itself is the governing jurisdiction that covers Walt Disney World and is controlled by Disney.

You see rather than blindly spraying insecticides over the entirety of the property, which is twice the size of Manhattan, Disney instead uses various methods to carefully track where and when to spray. The program maintains over 60 traps across the area of Walt Disney World.

They’ll then bring those traps, filled with mosquitoes, back to a lab where the mosquitoes are frozen to death and analyzed. The team looks at everything from what kind of species they are, to their concentration, to how old they are and how many of them were ready to lay eggs. By looking at all this data for all of these traps, Disney is able to paint themselves a picture of what parts of the property need the most attention when it comes to eliminating the bugs.

Similar to the way they lay mosquito traps all over property, they also spread something else across their property: chickens. They’re called sentinel chickens, and their sole purpose is to be monitored for signs of dangerous viruses like the West Nile virus. Unlike us, chickens don’t get sick from the West Nile virus. Disney tests the blood of these chickens regularly to see if that antibody is present. If it is, it means a mosquito with the virus was nearby.

So using these tools, Disney is able to adjust their spraying patterns and other mosquito killing methods to keep up with unexpected concentrations of the bug. Now that’s the precision of their methods, but there’s also the vigilance. Disney, more than most, sprays their property twice a day to cull the mosquito numbers, once right around sunrise and once around sunset, the two times of the day mosquitoes are most active. Their fleet of trucks cover as many as a combined 86 miles worth of roads, fields, canals, and firebreaks across their property.

However, what happens when their best isn’t good enough? Well if there’s one thing Disney holds above guest experience, it’s guest safety. So in the few instances where they felt they could do more to ensure that guest safety, it came at the cost of experience. Most notably, there were instances of an encephalitis scare both in 1990 and 1997 that resulted in Disney taking extra precautions. They handed out letters to guests staying on property that cautioned them to minimize activities during sunrise and sunset, and to wear longer sleeves whenever possible. On top of that, both golf courses on property as well as water based attractions were closed early so that guests weren’t using either during sunset. The outdoor luau at the Polynesian resort was temporarily moved indoors, and the hay bale rides and campfire activities at Fort Wilderness were completely cancelled. Recently we saw Disney take extra steps during the Zika virus scare in 2016. Guests at resorts were offered free mosquito repellent, and stations with the repellent were setup throughout the theme parks on property.
Рекомендации по теме
Комментарии
Автор

They have multiple snipers shooting the mosquitoes out of the air

thefbi
Автор

Simple answer, and I worked there for 5 years, they spray EVERY night during skeeter season.

peterlutz
Автор

In 2006 I was staying at Animal kingdom and got bitten whilst on my balcony overlooking the savanna one evening. My fault. Nobody else’s. The next morning I popped into the hotel shop for some bite cream and the cast member was horrified. Gave me the cream free and took details of my room number. By the time i had returned to my room with the cream a crew had arrived and were draining the pond outside my room!! No more bites for the rest of my stay.... amazing response.

clivesimmons
Автор

I just now realized that I have never seen a mosquito in Disney world o_0

isabel
Автор

Their contract with the devil keeps the mosquitoes away

japkap
Автор

When my children and I were at Disney, we created a game of who could find the most bugs. It took us a full day to find one single bug. I've been wondering for years what was their secret

joynoir
Автор

Me: never been to Disney Land or Disney World.

YouTube: wanna know why there's no masquitos there?

Panda
Автор

Mosquitoes obviously operate the rides behind the scenes

Shawn-lrhn
Автор

10pm: im gonna go to bed early
3am: why are there no mosquitoes in disney world

cheggerhans
Автор

Wow I’ve actually never seen a mosquito at Disney.
Likewise I’ve also never seen a chicken.

diwi
Автор

They have effective lawyers that can even sue mosquitoes.

carlmalmquist
Автор

"Disney is in a swamp"







*Shrek watches from a distance waiting to strike*

porkyminch
Автор

I've never seen mosquitoes at disney world. I've also never been to disney world.

painfish
Автор

Mosquitoes are actually made by Disney to spread havoc around the globe and leave Disney World as a safe haven

PowderedGranola
Автор

You can call me a mosquito because I've never been there either

BdashYdash
Автор

Mosquitoes hate the blood of Disney characters

Miimu
Автор

Mosquito need to buy tickets to enter Disney world....

heatwave
Автор

I love that you used actually Disney cartoons to show your points 😉

kawsakiTV
Автор

My you were just going to say they blanket the place with insecticide. Didn't know there was science and chickens involved!!😕

b-man
Автор

I've been to Disney a bunch of times and i never even noticed there's no mosquitoes

Abigailg_