GULFPORT, Fla. — With locally acquired dengue cases appearing across Tampa Bay, Gulfport leaders and Pinellas County mosquito-control officials convened a town hall Monday night to answer residents’ questions and push back against what Vice Mayor Marlene Shaw called a wave of misinformation. Shaw said she organized the meeting after listening to conversations in the community that she felt were not grounded in facts. “There has been so much conversation going on. I refer to it as chatter because a lot of it is misinformed information,” Shaw said. “They’re just going off in all different directions rather than going right to the facts.” She also acknowledged that she personally had questions about the county’s mosquito-control treatments, including whether larvicides could harm pollinators and whether treatments could be applied on private property. “There were so many reasons that even I was concerned,” she said. The town hall came at a moment of heightened concern: Florida Department of Health data show locally acquired dengue cases in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Miami-Dade, Orange and Palm Beach counties. In Pinellas, the recent cases are the first locally acquired dengue in years, according to officials. That has prompted residents to seek information about how the virus spreads, what the county is doing, and what they can do to protect themselves. The meeting was designed to be a direct line between the public and the professionals who spend their days tracking mosquitoes and treating breeding sites. For many in the room, it was the first chance to hear, in plain language, how mosquito control actually works and why health officials are increasingly concerned about dengue.
Much of the discussion focused on the county’s use of Bti, or Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, a naturally occurring soil bacterium that has become a standard tool in mosquito management. Pinellas County is using Bti to target mosquito larvae in standing water before they develop into biting adults, Caroline Pickart, a senior environmental specialist with Pinellas County Mosquito Control, explained. The bacterium produces toxins that attack the larvae of mosquitoes, blackflies and fungus gnats. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Bti does not pose a risk to people when used as directed. Unlike broad-spectrum chemical insecticides that can linger in the environment and affect a wide range of insects, Bti is highly selective. It must be ingested by larvae in water; adult insects, including bees and other pollinators, are not exposed in the same way. This specificity has made Bti a mainstay of many municipal mosquito-control programs. Still, residents wanted to know whether the treatments could affect beneficial insects, and whether county workers would come onto private property. Officials addressed those concerns by describing how larvicide applications are carried out: workers inspect areas of standing water where mosquitoes are likely to breed, including roadside ditches, storm drains, and container habitats. In many cases, the most effective response is to remove the water source entirely, or to apply a small amount of larvicide to water that cannot be drained. Shaw said the explanation helped ease some of her own concerns. The goal, officials stressed, is not to blanket the landscape with chemicals but to use targeted interventions that interrupt the mosquito life cycle before adult mosquitoes emerge. By focusing on larvae, the county can reduce the number of mosquitoes that will eventually bite people, while minimizing unintended effects on the wider ecosystem.
Pickart also spent considerable time correcting misconceptions about when dengue-carrying mosquitoes are active. Many residents assume mosquitoes are only a problem at dusk and dawn, but the two primary species capable of spreading dengue — Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus — are daytime biters. That means a person can be bitten while gardening, walking the dog, or sitting on a porch in the middle of the afternoon. “If a mosquito is infected with dengue, it does have the ability to pass that on to us when it bites us,” Pickart said. “And that’s through the ability of when they are biting us, they actually spit inside of us.” The virus is transmitted through the mosquito’s saliva, which it injects to prevent blood clotting while feeding. An infected mosquito can transmit the virus through a single bite. Aedes aegypti, often called the yellow fever mosquito, and Aedes albopictus, the Asian tiger mosquito, are especially well adapted to live near people. They lay eggs in artificial containers such as flower pots, buckets, tires, bird baths, and even bottle caps that hold rainwater. Unlike some other mosquito species that fly long distances from breeding sites, these Aedes mosquitoes tend to stay close to home, which means a person’s own yard can be the source of the mosquitoes that bite them. They are aggressive feeders and often bite multiple people in a single day, which can amplify transmission once dengue enters a neighborhood. Pickart emphasized that the daytime biting behavior changes prevention strategies: repellent should be applied in the morning, not just in the evening, and residents should check their property for standing water on a regular basis. She also noted that dengue is not spread from person to person through casual contact; the virus needs a mosquito to move between hosts. The best way to break the cycle, she said, is to reduce the places where mosquitoes can breed and to protect against bites.
The town hall included an update on the latest numbers, and they were enough to sharpen everyone’s attention. Florida Department of Health data show 152 locally acquired dengue cases statewide through Sept. 12. That includes 134 cases linked to exposure in Hillsborough County, seven in Pinellas County and two in Pasco County. The report lists cases by the likely county of exposure, which may differ from where a patient lives. Hillsborough County accounts for nearly nine out of every 10 locally acquired cases reported in Florida during 2026. State health officials also reported cases in Miami-Dade, Orange and Palm Beach counties. Locally acquired means the person was infected in Florida, not while traveling to a dengue-endemic country. In Pinellas County, this is the first time we’ve seen a local dengue case in many years, Pickart said. That makes the current cluster a significant shift, even though the total number of cases remains relatively small. Health officials pay close attention to dengue because the Aedes mosquito species are widespread in Florida and because a single imported case can start local transmission if mosquitoes feed on an infected person and then bite others. The data, Pickart explained, help mosquito-control teams prioritize where to inspect and treat. When a case is confirmed, officials work to identify the likely exposure site, test mosquitoes in the area, and step up larvicide applications and public warnings. Residents in affected neighborhoods are urged to eliminate standing water and protect themselves from bites. The statewide totals also reflect a broader pattern: dengue has been expanding in the Americas and Caribbean, and Florida’s warm climate and international travel make it vulnerable to repeated introductions. While this year’s numbers are far smaller than the hundreds of thousands of cases in some countries, local officials do not want to see dengue become established in Tampa Bay.
Beyond the immediate concern about mosquito control, officials wanted residents to understand the disease itself. Most people infected with dengue experience no symptoms at all, or they develop a mild illness that resolves within about a week. That is one reason dengue can spread quietly: a person may not realize they were infected, and if they are bitten by another mosquito during the period when the virus is in their blood, they can pass it on. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that approximately one in 20 people who become sick with dengue develop severe dengue, a potentially deadly complication. Severe dengue can cause internal bleeding, shock and even death. Warning signs can emerge within 24 to 48 hours after the fever goes away, which can be a confusing moment because a patient may seem to be recovering. The signs include abdominal pain, repeated vomiting, bleeding from the gums or nose, blood in vomit or stool, extreme fatigue, and restlessness. Pickart and other health professionals at the meeting urged residents to seek medical care immediately if they or a family member experience those symptoms. There is no specific antiviral medication for dengue; treatment is supportive, and patients are advised to stay hydrated and use acetaminophen for fever and pain rather than aspirin or ibuprofen, which can increase bleeding risk. Officials also reminded residents that people who have had dengue once can be infected again, and that a second infection can actually increase the risk of severe disease. For that reason, protecting oneself from mosquito bites is not only a personal health measure but a community health measure. The best defenses are simple and well known: use EPA-registered insect repellent, wear long sleeves and pants when outdoors, keep windows and doors screened, and remove standing water around homes every few days.
Residents left the meeting with a clearer picture of what to do — and, in some cases, what not to do. April Thanas, who attended the town hall, said she had been planning to tell her neighbors to create a bucket of water containing a mosquito-control dunk, a common product that releases Bti to kill larvae. After hearing the officials’ explanations, she realized that approach was not the right message. “I was going to start telling people to do that, so now I’ve learned not to do that,” Thanas said. The broader takeaway, according to officials, is that source reduction is the foundation: if water is allowed to stand, mosquitoes can breed, and no larvicide is a substitute for eliminating the container or covering it so mosquitoes cannot lay eggs. Shaw said she plans to share information from the meeting through local publications, while residents said they would pass what they learned to neighbors by word of mouth. That combination of official communication and neighbor-to-neighbor conversation is exactly what Shaw hoped the town hall would generate. She said the misinformation she had been hearing can be countered with facts, but those facts need to reach people where they live. The meeting also built a foundation for future outreach: residents who now understand how Bti works, why daytime bites matter, and what the case data show can answer questions from friends and family with confidence. In a county that has gone years without locally acquired dengue, the current cases are a reminder that the virus can appear anywhere conditions are right. But officials say the same traits that make Aedes mosquitoes dangerous — their preference for human habitat and containers — also make them vulnerable to community action. The town hall ended with a simple, unified message: dump the water, protect yourself from bites, and trust the public health officials who are working to keep the virus from spreading.