As Citrus County continues to receive a lot of rain, the Florida Department of Health in Citrus County (DOH-Citrus) and the Citrus County Mosquito Control District reminds residents to do their part in preventing mosquito breeding and mosquito-borne illness.

To keep families and neighbors safe from diseases such as Zika and West Nile Virus, DOH-Citrus and the Citrus County Mosquito Control District urges the public to practice the five D’s of mosquito protection (Dress, Dawn, Dusk, DEET and Drain) and take advantage of the Citrus County Solid Waste Management Division’s free tire disposal event on July 25-27:

►DRESS in long sleeves, long pants and light-colored, loose-fitting clothing.

►DAWN and ►DUSK are when some mosquitoes are most active. Different mosquitoes spread different viruses and bite at different times of the day.

►DEET is an effective repellent. Always use Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered insect repellents with one of the active ingredients such as DEET, picaridin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE), para-menthane-diol (PMD) or 2-undecanone. When used as directed, EPA-registered insect repellents are proven safe and effective, even for pregnant and breastfeeding women.

►DRAIN water from containers—tires, buckets, planters, toys, pools, birdbaths, flowerpots or trash cans—at least once per week. It only takes as little as one bottle cap of water for mosquitoes to breed and multiply.

Tires can breed thousands of mosquitoes. Residents are encouraged to dispose of tires at the Central Landfill, located at 230 W. Gulf to Lake Highway (SR44) in Lecanto, free of charge on the following dates and times:

• Thursday, July 25, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• Friday, July 26, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• Saturday, July 27, from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Residents in assessed and non-assessed areas can dispose of a maximum of 25 passenger and/or pickup truck tires (without rims) free of charge for recycling. This event does not apply to waste tire haulers or commercial entities and is intended for residents only.

For more information about the tire disposal event, call Citrus County Solid Waste Management Division at 352-527-7670 or email landfillinfo@citrusbocc.com.

For more information about Citrus County Mosquito Control District or to submit a service request, visit www.citrusmosquito.org/requests or call 352-527-7478.

For more information about DOH-Citrus, visit www.CitrusCountyHealth.org or follow us on Twitter at @FLHealthCitrus.