Discover why Disney World never has mosquitoes

Why Disney World never had mosquitoes is the question of many tourists when coming to the fairy space with famous Disney cartoon characters. How do they do that? Together AnonyViet Find out the answer through the article below!

The Origin of Mosquito Measures at Disney World

Most of Disney World’s insect control measures involve one person. If you’ve ever taken the ferry from the Ticket Center to the Magic Kingdom, you’ve probably noticed the name “General Joe Potter” on one of the boats.

Mr. Potter is an MIT graduate engineer and engineering expert and served as governor of the Panama Canal Zone, an area ravaged by malaria mosquitoes. In 1964, he met Walt Disney during a World Exposition.

As Joe and Walt talk, Joe mentions his background in mosquito control. Walt was like “hire him right away” and put Joe in charge of keeping mosquitoes out of the massive amusement park Walt was planning to build in central Florida.

Why Disney World never had mosquitoes

Mosquitoes are annoying and dangerous insects for humans. They can transmit malaria, dengue fever, Zika and many other diseases. Mosquitoes usually live and breed in damp, standing water. Florida is one of the places with favorable conditions for mosquitoes to thrive because of the hot and rainy climate

Here are the measures Disney has taken to keep its parks mosquito-free.

Prevent mosquitoes from laying eggs in standing water

Disney’s method is not to kill the insects but to keep them out of the park, they target the larvae by making the park not an ideal environment for mosquitoes to live or lay their eggs.

One of the ways they do this is to make sure the park doesn’t have static water – mosquitoes are attracted to calm water, and that’s an ideal environment for them to lay their eggs. So when Potter started construction work for Disney World, he immediately built drainage channels to remove all the water, converting the wetlands into buildable land.

In addition, all water sources in the park must be moved, whether waterfalls, streams, lakes or fountains. Furthermore, drainage systems are installed everywhere so as not to leave puddles on the ground or on buildings and statues, that’s why why Disney World never has mosquitoes.

Whenever Disney prepares to build a new building, they buy a lot more land than the building requires so they can build drainage channels to keep the water moving.

Design the building to prevent standing water

Disney buildings are also designed in a certain shape so that they do not accumulate water. It’s something customers will never notice, but it’s very effective. They made every building there curvilinear or designed so that there was no room for water to pool in puddles.

Use garlic extract to repel mosquitoes

From the very beginning, Walt Disney was clear that he didn’t want harmful chemicals flying around his park because he didn’t want to affect the environment, he wanted it to be something natural.

So, instead of using pesticides, the park used a unique insect repellent: garlic juice. Mosquitoes are notoriously intolerant of the smell of garlic, so Disney sprayed an extract around the park. The amount they use is so small that humans can’t smell it, but mosquitoes are very sensitive to it.

Epilogue

With the above information, you probably already know the answer why Disney World never has mosquitoes then right! Thanks to the intelligent and effective insect control measures adopted by the park, it has created an almost mosquito-free play space. This is one of the reasons why Disney World has become an attractive entertainment destination for tourists around the world.