Walt Disney World is smack dab in the
middle of a swamp in a state that is
more or less a swamp itself and that's
not just some dig at Florida with 29
percent of the area of the state being
covered Florida is proportionally more
comprised of wetlands than any other
state in the u.s. so with that in mind
why isn't Walt Disneyworld swarming with
mosquitoes in truth like most of Florida
there are plenty of mosquitoes at Disney
however Disney is dedicated to guest
experience and mosquitoes are well
really annoying beyond that they're
potentially dangerous according to the
World Health Organization as many as 1
million people die from mosquitoes every
year not the bite itself obviously but
the disease and virus that can often
come with it now most of that is
attributed to malaria which is mostly a
problem in Africa in parts of South
America however in the United States
we've still had to worry about viruses
like the West Nile virus encephalitis
and most recently Zika so as a result
Disney goes all out in combating
mosquitoes and minimizing their presence
on property how well they don't have any
particularly special weapon that isn't
used elsewhere in the world Disney's
arsenal includes insecticides which kill
the mosquitoes fairly quickly growth
regulators which reduce their lifespan
and maintaining natural predators in the
area that eat the insects as part of
their diet
on their own they're all methods that
many other places employ to deal with
the annoying mosquitoes
however the impressive part is the
vigilance and the precision in which
Disney carries out these methods it all
begins with the mosquito surveillance
program which is an element of the
Department of planning and engineering
for the Reedy Creek Improvement District
the Improvement District itself is the
governing jurisdiction that covers Walt
Disney World and is controlled by Disney
you see rather than blindly spraying
insecticides over the entirety of the
property which is twice the size of
Manhattan Disney instead uses various
methods to carefully track where and
when to spray the program maintains over
60 traps across the area of Walt is
world these traps trickle out small
amounts of carbon dioxide which attracts
the mosquitoes much in the same way we
exhale carbon dioxide which
unfortunately brings them over to us
they'll then bring those traps filled
with mosquitoes back to a lab where the
mosquitoes are frozen to death and
analyzed the team looks at everything
from what kind of species they are to
their concentration to how old they are
and how many of them were ready to lay
eggs by looking at all this data for all
of these traps Disney is able to paint
themselves a picture of what parts of
the property need the most attention
when it comes to eliminating the insects
similar to the way they lay mosquito
traps all over property they also spread
something else across their property
chickens they're called Sentinel
chickens and their sole purpose is to be
monitored for signs of dangerous viruses
like the West Nile virus unlike us
chickens don't get sick from the West
Nile virus they naturally produce an
antibody that not only keeps them safe
from the virus but it keeps the levels
of the virus low enough in their blood
that they don't risk passing it on to
other mosquitoes Disney tests the blood
of these chickens regularly to see if
that antibody is present if it is it
means a mosquito with the virus was
nearby this is helpful because while you
could technically catch and test
free-roaming birds and animals for the
virus you'd have no idea where that
animal was infected with chickens in a
coop however you know exactly where it
happened so using these tools Disney is
able to adjust their spraying patterns
and other mosquito killing methods to
keep up with the unexpected
concentrations of the insect now that's
the precision of their methods but
there's also the vigilance Disney more
than most sprays their property twice a
day to call the mosquito numbers once
right around the sunrise and once right
around sunset the to times of day
mosquitoes are most active their fleet
of trucks cover as many as a combined 86
miles worth of roads fields canals and
fire breaks across the property now
obviously they don't kill all of the
mosquitoes with land that large and
insects that prevalent it's an
impossible task there are also areas
that end up being treated less due to
Disney's tendency to avoid spraying
around guests themselves as a result the
Fort Wilderness campgrounds tend to be
the least treated of the resort's due to
its outdoorsy nature that encourages
guests to partake in outdoor activities
they do their best however what happens
when their best isn't good enough well
if there's one thing Disney holds above
guests experience its guests safety so
in the few instances where they felt
they could do more to ensure that guests
safety it came at the cost of experience
most notably there were instances of an
encephalitis scare both in 1990 and 1997
that resulted in Disney taking extra
precautions they handed out letters to
guests staying on property that
cautioned them to minimize activities
during sunrise and sunset and to wear
longer sleeves whenever possible on top
of that both golf courses on property as
well as water-based attractions were
closed early so that guests weren't
using either during sunset the outdoor
luau at the Polynesian Resort was
temporarily moved indoors and the
hay-bale rides and campfire activities
at Fort Wilderness were completely
canceled recently we saw Disney take
extra steps during the Zika virus scare
in 2016 guests at resorts were offered
free mosquito repellent and stations
with the repellent were set up
throughout the theme parks on property
at the end of the day as nice as it
would seem it would be impossible for
Disney to completely rid their property
of mosquitoes however all things
accounted for they do a pretty good job
of trying sometimes it feels like Disney
magic but like most of Disney's magic
it's really the product of the thousands
of individuals who put in the work every
single day even when that work is
dealing with mosquitoes
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