AGRICULTURE
JEFF SUMMERSILL
Jeff Summersill, owner of T.R. Summersill Inc., left, confers with Indian River County personnel before
taking off on his larvicide drop missions.
Florida is
home to about
75 species of
mosquitoes
and about 55
species can be
found in Indian
River County.
77
so some of those rules are sidelined
when we are flying at 50- to 75-foot
altitudes.”
BASED IN BELLE GLADE
Summersill, 46, has been working
as a subcontractor for the Indian River
Mosquito Control District since 2006.
He now runs his grandfather’s aerial
agricultural business, T.R.Summersill
Inc., based in Belle Glade. His company
has three Air Tractor 8020s to apply a
variety of applications. These large,
single engine prop planes with 60-foot
wingspans are specially built for the
purpose of application at a cost of $1.7
million. Each is equipped with a state
of the art GPS tracking system with a
swath guidance system that allows for
efficient and accurate application and,
with an 800-gallon tank, it can drop
8,000 pounds of dry material quickly
and quietly.
“We have an
elected board of three
commissioners who set
annual millage rate that
generates the fund for us
to do our work over the
course of the year. For a
home worth $150,000 that
averages out to about
$25 a year — a small
price to pay to control
mosquitoes.
The Indian River Mosquito Control
District dictates when and where Summersill
disperses the dry material.
“The IR Mosquito Control District
has a crew of nine individuals inspecting
for mosquito larvae and when they
can’t control it from the ground, they
call us to attack them from the air,”
Summersill elaborated. “We are supplied
a very detailed GPS shape file outlining
the area to be covered. We insert
that into our aircraft GPS so we know
exactly where to go and we can supply
the map back to the district to verify we
did it. This technology is very advanced
and efficient.”
Doug Carlson, director of the IR
Mosquito Control District, explained
that they actually start with a map that
shows Florida in the 1820s and 30s,
appropriately named Mosquito County.
It’s said that back in those days women
wrapped newspaper around their legs
to avoid getting bit. The IR Mosquito
Control District was established in 1925
when the northern part of St. Lucie
County was divided to create Indian
River County. It was the first mosquito
control district in the state of Florida.
“We are an independent taxing district
and totally separate from Indian
River County government,” Carlson
clarified. “We have an elected board of
three commissioners who set annual
millage rate that generates the fund for
us to do our work over the course of the
year. For a home worth $150,000 that averages
out to about $25 a year — a small
price to pay to control mosquitoes.”
The district uses an integrated management
approach to mosquito control
that incorporates different techniques to
control different species. This includes
extensive surveillance for mosquito
populations, source reduction work, larviciding
to control immature salt marsh
mosquitoes, and adulticiding to control
flying mosquitoes.
TARGETING SALT MARSH
MOSQUITOES
There are more than 3,500 species of
mosquitoes around the world; Florida is
home to about 75 species and there are
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