The upcoming summer season means two things: more rain, and more travel to and from Brazil for the Olympics in Rio.
Both are a recipe for spreading the Zika virus, and Florida leads the nation in confirmed cases with 102. That's why the state is setting up a mosquito testing center in Central Florida.
"It's really nice that there's going to be a central place for some of these other districts to send suspect samples to be tested and confirmed," says Matt Smith, director of Sarasota County Mosquito Management.
Smith has spent months building up Sarasota County's mosquito labs to test for the virus, including acquiring Zika RNA and requesting updated equipment.
"It's a modest cost compared to the benefit you'll get public health wise," says Smith. "So we feel like we should be able to get this done later this summer and definitely by early fall."
The Florida Department of Agriculture is supplying it's 56 mosquito control districts with specialized mosquito traps, designed to catch the particular species carrying the virus. Once caught, a district can send samples back to the new center.
However, with no confirmed Zika cases in its area, Manatee County Mosquito Control director Mark Latham says trapping and testing is pointless.
"If we don't have any knowledge of any Zika in our area, it would be very difficult to know where would we put the traps," says Latham. "I would be shocked if we put traps out, had no notifications of Zika, and then we got a positive mosquito."
But testing is reactive, and experts say the best defense is as simple as walking around your property.
"We can't solve this, we need the public to clean their backyards, tip and drain," says Latham. "All the messages you've been hearing for quite a few years."
A DOA spokesperson says testing will begin within the next two weeks.
