Mosquito Magnet protects zoo animals from virus Fight against West Nile working in Naples

By MARY WOZNIAK, mwozniak@news-press.com

The Zoo at Caribbean Gardens in Naples is one of many statewide zoos protecting their animals from the West Nile virus.

Zoo staff has been aware of the virus threat for several years, Ron Friedman, Caribbean Gardens marketing director, said Wednesday.

The animals at Caribbean Gardens are being protected without the use of pesticides.

Steps taken to combat the virus include devices called Mosquito Magnets and putting native Gambusia fish, also known as “mosquito fish,” in the bodies of water at the zoo.

“Unfortunately, the zoo cannot permit aerial spray,” he said. Humans may not drink standing water, but animals might and the spray falling in the standing water could harm them, he said.

Instead, the zoo uses a contraption called the Mosquito Magnet, manufactured by American Biophysics, Friedman said.

“It looks like a propane-powered barbecue,” said Larry Richardson, wildlife biologist for the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge. Turns out that female mosquitoes, which are the only mosquitoes that bite, are attracted to carbon dioxide.

The device uses a propane tank and converts propane gas to carbon dioxide, Richardson said. A fan sucks the mosquitoes into the device and they are trapped alive.

One tank will cover an acre and last for three weeks, he said.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Busch Gardens, the Miami Metrozoo and Lion County Safari in Palm Beach County have given some of their animals a horse vaccine to protect them from the disease.

The year-old vaccine was conditionally approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for horses only but Miami Metrozoo gave it to some of its most prized birds. Fifty pink flamingos have gotten the vaccine, along with some condors and harpy eagles, zoo officials said.

None of the zoos have reported any animals or visitors contracting West Nile virus.

Caribbean Gardens also vaccinates its hoofed animals, such as zebras, Friedman said.

The only mosquitoes humans have to worry about are those that hatch out of standing water, Richardson said.

They are the mosquitoes that may carry West Nile, Eastern equine encephalitis, or St. Louis encephalitis, he said.

Meanwhile, a 71-year-old Sumter County man was recovering at home from encephalitis caused by the West Nile virus. He is the first Floridian identified with the disease this year.

State health officials confirmed the man has the disease and said he is believed to have gotten it while in Louisiana, where seven people have died from the disease.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2002