More Mosquitoes Inside Than Usual?

[Lisa P.]

We stayed in a 1BR first floor unit at Saratoga Springs Resort last week. The rooms have been recently refurbished and they're absolutely gorgeous! We really loved the new decor and the murphy beds. All super-comfortable. The resort landscaping has matured and it's very beautiful. The 2 feature pools are terrific fun. Staff/CMs were awesome - excellent overall.

Unfortunately, we had a problem with numerous mosquitoes inside the unit (we killed about 2 dozen throughout the condo on the first night and 6-10 daily after that). This continued all week despite our calling on the 2nd day to request that they spray outside the front door and back patio area. Not sure if they ever did or not. We got used to making sure all interior lights were off whenever we were going to open the front door to leave and hunting the mosquitoes down each time we returned to the unit. We also tried using soap diluted cider vinegar traps and sticky flying insect traps but only caught 2 with these.

Sadly, we didn't dare try to use the patio because we didn't want to open that door, which has no screen. We normally LOVE to spend a couple early morning hours on our patio or balcony. This was a bit of a spoiler for our trip, really. Not sure I'd ever accept another 1st floor room at this resort again, with so many small ponds and golf water traps.

We got bit a couple times while crossing the bridge between the Springs and Paddock, and once on our back patio on arrival day. Honestly, we didn't see any mosquitoes anywhere else on property so we wondered if there was a localized infestation. We half-heartededly nicknamed the small pond next to building 55, "The Skeeter Farm" because it has no aerating fountain. But we weren't really sure if that had anything to do with it because our room was on the other end of the building, facing the lake/bridge.

DH and I are not mosquito magnets so we only got a few bites while indoors through the week, either overnight or when showering. Our DS, DDIL and 2-year-old DGS stayed with us for a few days at the start of the trip. Poor, sweet little guy's face, arms and lower legs were all bitten during our first night there, even after we'd killed all the mosquitoes we had seen. Don't think he was bitten again overnight the next 2 nights. A CM at the gift shop gave us cortisone cream for him at no charge. Still it was sad as he kept scratching for days and I worried he'd get an infected wound, scratching his sensitive skin so much.

When DH & I visited Fort Wilderness Campground later in the week, we noticed a mosquito repellent dispenser near the boat dock. But we never saw a repellent dispenser anywhere else on property. Which made me wonder... Was that dispenser left over from years past or are there already more mosquitoes out in central Florida (or at WDW resorts) at this time of year than usual? Has Disney cut back on their mosquito mitigation efforts? Has anyone else here experienced such a problem inside your room at SSR or any other resort in the area?

 

[biochemgirl]

My family has noticed an increase in mosquitoes on property since reopening last summer. We've been bitten outside (as far as we know) but all over property and at multiple resorts. Places we know we were bitten include the pool chairs at Kidani, AK (multiple areas!), walking from BLT to MK, eating outside near Geyser Point at WL, eating outside at Trattoria Al Forno. We travel a few times a year and have not had a year like this before - it's been rough on us since last June. We now have to travel with a back up prescription of prednisone because some bodies do not do well with multiple bites

As much as I hate DEET, we will be layering it on along with sunscreen for our June trip.

 

[Missingmypooh]

I’m a Floridian native, and back in 2012 I got to speak with a Disney tech as part of my ag degree relating to pesticide and insecticide use.

here’s an article in lamens terms about how they use integrative methods for reducing the population, and why they don’t use a lot of “chemicals” unless they know exactly what they are dealing with.

Im not sure why they are so bad in that area, for reference I live on a lake, in lake county, 10 minutes from Orange County and 45 from animal kingdom. We haven’t had a single mosquito yet this year, but I know they’re coming!

we prefer light traps, like zappers and the dynatrap. We actually have a portable dynatrap we bring with us on vacations. It stays in our overnight bag next to the nightlight and spare toothpaste.

 

[Lisa P.]

Thanks for your replies. We may look into get a portable Dynatrap for our warm weather travel. Maybe WDW should consider having these available when resort guests (like us) request help due to inside mosquito problems like we had.

Our DS, DDIL and 2-year-old DGS actually live in FL near the Gulf coast. They have not yet had a lot of mosquitoes in their area but the ponds in their neighborhood are all aerated with fountains. It's not nearly as swampy as the WDW area. It's been over a week since DGS was bitten during the nights in our SSR room. He continues to have a couple small, scabbed wounds on his face where he's continued to scratch overnight. Not much you can do to fully avoid this with a 2 year old. His skin is so sensitive. He may end up with little scars on his face. Awful!

I doubt we'd take them to another WDW resort (outside of the coolest winter months) if Disney doesn't step up their mosquito control efforts, especially when a guest calls to request help. This was a bummer... another reason we enjoy staying in a highrise resort building (usually offsite) where most rooms are located far enough above ground to minimize bug issues. JMO.

 

[debg]

Thanks for the information. Sounds terrible! I'll make sure to have mosquito spray with us. We've got an OKW stay coming up and it's been mosquito-ey there before.

debg ;-)