Pest control company, Terminix, yesterday released a list of the top cities in the United States that were most interested in finding out more about mosquitoes, according to internet search trends from 2020.
The state of Florida had the highest search frequency with seven different cities in the top 25, followed by Texas and California, that had five cities and four cities, respectively.
The six Florida cities are Ft. Myers (3), Tampa-St. Petersburg (8), Panama City (10), Miami-Ft. Lauderdale (12), Jacksonville (16), West Palm Beach (17) and Orlando (20).
Terminix based its rankings on data from Google Trends, a tool that shows how frequently a given search term or set of search terms is entered into Google’s search engine over a given period of time and across specific geographic locations. To provide a more accurate measure of interest in mosquitoes, Terminix analyzed trend data for popular mosquito-related search terms in 2020, broken out by U.S. city. This analysis helped to identify the locations with the highest proportion of mosquito-related searches compared to city population.
Mosquito-borne diseases infect millions each year across the globe and kill over one million people every year. In the U.S., mosquitoes can transmit serious diseases such as West Nile virus and encephalitis, and globally, mosquitoes are vectors for other deadly illnesses, including malaria and Zika.
Proper mosquito management is key to helping alleviate the ongoing public health concerns associated with this pest. Following these simple prevention tips and using professional control methods can help protect families.
- Eliminate water sources: Empty any outdoor water containers or equipment every 3–5 days. This includes bird baths, pet dishes, children’s toys and recreational equipment or patio decorations.
- Dress appropriately outdoors: Wear loose-fitting and light-colored clothing.
- Protect yourself: Apply repellent such as DEET, picaridin, IR-3535 or Oil of Lemon-Eucalyptus (OLE), per CDC guidelines.
- Maintain your home: Clean gutters often, maintain your lawn and repair tears in window or door screens.
- Hire a professional: Focus on control methods offered by expertly trained professionals to handle these aggressive pests.
In case you were curious, Bakersfield, California ranked #1 in the survey.
