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The Pasco County Mosquito Control District (PCMCD) was created by the Pasco County Board of Commissioners as the result of a referendum vote in the summer of 1951. We have expanded five times since its establishment in 1951. On each occasion in 1978, 1981, 1986, 2002, and 2003, the expansion process was initiated by petition at the grass roots level by the residents within a voting precinct that was adjacent to the District. Petitions were first presented to the 3-member Mosquito Control Board for approval and then to the Pasco County Board of Commissioners for authorization via public meetings. Once an area becomes part of the PCMCD, a property owner is charged an annual mosquito control services fee which is noted as a separate item on tax bills issued by the County Tax Appraisers Office. The annual charge varies, but it usually has been about $0.25 per $1000 of a property's assessed value.

Originally, District personnel included three Commissioners plus one individual who drove a truck which was used to spray for adult mosquitoes. Within a few years, we were also applying pesticides to mosquito larvae and the Florida State Board of Health was providing us with engineering and entomological support so that we could ditch many of our coastal salt marshes and several nearby freshwater sites. Improvements were made to drain standing water, thus preventing mosquito production. Ditching and subsequent ditch cleaning was one of our major efforts up through about 1990.

In the past 10 years, we have continued to develop our larviciding and adulticiding capabilities, and focused on a more environmentally "tasteful" method termed source reduction. We have also focused on tire removal and aquatic weed control since they are both associated with producing mosquitoes. We currently are one of the recognized leaders in our field, and often are called upon for advice. We boast a compliment of cross-trained employees with an average longevity of about 15 years with the District. Field personnel often work seven days a week during the summer months, conducting inspections, collecting and identifying mosquitoes from the 42 permanent traps we maintain throughout the District, and controlling both larvae and adult mosquitoes when found in sufficient numbers.