It's been a long time since I was at Walt Disney World and I'm pretty sure I was so excited the few times I was there I wouldn't have even noticed mosquitoes but I imagine any parent reading this right now would remember if they spent their entire trip swatting away mosquitoes. You don't remember doing that though because Walk Disney World takes "mosquito management" very seriously. They use a range of techniques to keep them away and have been doing this for years! You'd think being located in Florida, basically built on swamp lands, that the bugs would be terrible but according to an article at maternityweek.com, Walt Disney sought out engineer and Governor of the Panama Canal Zone, General William "Joe" Potter to use his pest control knowledge of which hear learned trying to control mosquitoes when they were building the Panama Canal.
While it's impossible to be rid of mosquitoes all together, to this day the staff at Disney World are still using those techniques which appear to work pretty well! For example, they focus not on killing the adult bugs but try to make it as unpleasant as possible for any insects that need to lay their eggs keeping the population down. Maybe you've noticed that there's no still water at Disney world at all. That's because standing water is the perfect place to lay their eggs and without it, that drastically reduces the places they can lay their eggs. You may have not noticed but on the grounds the water in constantly moving! They also have an incredible drainage system put in place as well as specifically designing the buildings so that water flows right off them and only planting certain species of plants to prevent any puddles from forming in the foliage.
Walt Disney also wanted to stay away from harmful pesticides so they use a garlic spray around the park. You don't smell it because they use such a small amount but it's enough to work on the mosquitoes! Maybe it's just me but I find all these facts fascinating. Especially the fact that they also use chickens around the grounds to help control the mosquitoes! There's so much more history on Walt Disney World, how it came to be and behind the scenes facts at maternityweek.com. I truthfully enjoyed reading all of it and now I look forward to seeing it all as an adult some day.
Images: Getty