Andrea L. Leal is the Deputy Director of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District and has been with the District since 2003. Some of her work at the District has included population and resistance monitoring, invasive species monitoring, and working with the United States Fish and Wildlife on control of migrating mosquitoes from offshore islands. She has also been involved with a number of new product trials and application techniques.
She has her BS in Biology and Marine Science from the University of Tampa and MS in Entomology from the University of Nebraska.
Mosquito Control in the Florida Keys
The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District has as its mission the protection of the public health, comfort and economic well-being of the citizens of the Florida Keys.
Control activities are conducted from Key West to the Ocean Reef Club, a distance of almost 120 miles. This includes contract work on military bases. Operations are conducted out of three facilities: a headquarters and center of operations on Stock Island, the aerial operations building on Vaca Key in the City of Marathon, and the Key Largo substation. The district employs 80 full-time staff members, most of whom are inspectors but who also include entomologists, biologists, pilots, information technology and safety specialists, mechanics, and administrative staff. Most of the District's 25 part-time employees operate spray trucks while others serve as back-up pilots.
Mosquito control in the Florida Keys is complicated by the great abundance of environmentally sensitive lands. The District is surrounded by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary; it abuts Biscayne National Park and Everglades National Park, and borders four national wildlife refuges and a number of state parks and preserves. The Florida Keys Mosquito Control utilizes three basic methods for mosquito control operations: source reduction, larval control, and adult control. All District activities are subject to regulation by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the US Environmental Protection Agency.
