Florida – Mosquitos, Heat, Swamps
By Diane Barile
Florida has had challenges greater than many of the United States. Threats of heat and floods and the discomfort of mosquitos hindered life for hundreds of years. Throw in the danger of hurricanes each summer and you have the formula for disaster. Today these obstacles have been largely addressed by modern devises.
The first U. S. maps of Florida included Mosquito County covering almost half the state. Perhaps it was a warning to immigrants from the North. Locally mosquitos bred in coastal marshes and flats bordering the St. Johns River. Giant clouds of mosquitos rose from salt marshes of the coast and the saw grasses of the lakes and rivers.
Settlers wore veils and kerchiefs over their face and long sleeves and pants. Campers built smoky fires to ward off mosquitos at night. Most homes were equipped with saw palmetto brushes to sweep the varmints off clothes and skin before running through smudge fires into the house. Before modern window screens, muslin cloth soaked in kerosene covered windows to protect the family from itchy bites. Beds were tented in mosquito bar draperies.
By the 1930s, new approaches for mosquito eradication developed to treat mosquito larvae rather than the adults. Mosquitos bred in shallow water where the larvae developed. The idea was to raise water levels so that breeding was interrupted. To control water levels, Mosquito Control Districts formed. Marshes were surrounded by levees, high embankments, with water gates for regulation of water levels.
By the 1950s, the districts sponsored mosquito spray trucks also to attack the adult mosquito swarms. Florida became more pleasant.
We have not yet found ways to control the heat and humidity of the Florida sun and with global warming, we face extra warmth. Before air conditioning, one built homes to catch the prevailing summer southeast wind. Porches shaded windows and doors. Some homes had sleeping porches on the second floor with banks of windows to catch the evening breezes.
Schools, hospitals and churches were built with high windows for air circulation. In some towns, the only place air conditioned was the movie theater. Gradually as homes became air conditioned, land use changed because houses could be built closer together. Porches, once a place for community chats, disappeared.
To “beat the heat” many residents simply left for cooler climes. Much of the Florida population fled the state for the summer. Winter residents usually arrived from December through Easter. When hotels closed for the summer, resort workers followed to jobs in New England and New York.
Local residents evacuated to cabins or second homes in the mountains of Georgia or North Carolina. Locally many downtown shops and tourist attractions closed for the summer. Businesses that did remain often closed for hours during the afternoon.
Florida abounds with stories of selling flooded swamp lands, the state’s most abundant resource. Before the advent of large drainage projects, Florida was awash with swamps, marshes, lakes and rivers. Towns grew along shorelines, navigable waterways and elevations above normal flood zones.
In the 1920s, there was a federal priority to drain marshes for agricultural land use by moving marsh water to tidewater. A good example is the Melbourne-Tillman Water Management District, originally called the Drainage District. Water from St. Johns River was directed to Turkey Creek and ultimately to the Indian River Lagoon. Through 200 miles of canals, the water table dropped as much as twenty feet. General Development Corporation of Miami developed about seventy thousand single family lots for housing and city expansion in the City of Palm Bay.
The twentieth century challenges for accommodating natural resources for the comfort of Florida residents have been met. People now have cool, dry air by day or night. Mosquitos are a minor annoyance met with a spray repellant. We travel to parks and reserves to see swamps and wetlands. Florida attracts visitors and residents from around the world all year long.