I remember in my youth, seeing county trucks ‘fogging’ the vegetation along the roads. Who knows what type of poison they were using, but I’d bet the practice has stopped.
Fast forward to today, and many don’t know it, but the EPA continues to create new regulations from the 1973 Clean Water Act. The latest incarnation of rules includes ‘stormwater quality’, which actually encourages/requires shopping centers, office parks, and residential developments to have a swamp somewhere on the property...to ‘clean’ the water. This is contrary to 150 years worth of practice, in which we tried to get water away from these places as fast as possible. Bring on the mosquitos, I guess.
I live in an area of lakes, ponds and swamps in Minnesota. Every late spring a mosquito control helicopter flies around misting the pond across the street and the swamp behind our house. It’s our state ‘bird’ here and they do take steps to control them.
Most of ‘em around here in Jax, FL called ‘em ‘bird sanctuaries’. No moving water, never seen a fish in one (if fishing is even allowed).
Just stagnant, green, ‘pristine’ waters.