Trump's latest crackdown targets mosquitoes. Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday, September 29, that sets federal agencies a new target: cut invasive mosquitoes in Washington by 90% and ticks by 50% by 2028. The order marks a break from past pest-control efforts, which relied on chemical spraying. Instead, it turns to technology — draining standing water, mowing grass, sterilizing insects and modifying their genes.
Interior secretary Doug Burgum and agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins will carry out the order. Burgum's department oversees federal lands, parks and natural resources across the country. The Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services and the General Services Administration are also involved. Within 60 to 90 days, the agencies must write rules for the new pest-control technologies. They must also draw up an action plan that, for now, covers only federal land in the capital. The order favors ready-made commercial products and deals with private companies rather than setting up new government bodies. It also calls for prize competitions to fund research into preventing and treating diseases spread by mosquito and tick bites.
The campaign targets mainly two species: the Asian tiger mosquito and the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti. Neither species is native to the US, but both now dominate parts of Washington. They spread West Nile virus, Zika, chikungunya and dengue. US health officials say West Nile virus is the leading cause of mosquito-borne illness in the continental United States. The order also names ticks as a source of Lyme disease and alpha-gal syndrome, a severe allergy to red meat triggered by tick bites.
190 dengue cases in Florida
The order comes days after Florida reported about 190 cases of dengue spread by local mosquitoes, the highest count this year, concentrated in several counties along the Gulf of Mexico. The White House has not officially linked the two events, but the order itself says the growing number of invasive mosquitoes is why "some areas, including Washington," are already feeling the effects.
600,000 infected mosquitoes released in the capital
In Washington itself, the methods in the order are nothing new. A private pest-control firm says it released about 600,000 mosquitoes this year infected with the bacterium Wolbachia, which makes the males sterile and gradually shrinks the population. Residents of Capitol Hill have set up a volunteer group to watch for breeding sites in the neighborhood. The city has a long history with mosquito-borne disease: in 1881, malaria killed 130 people in the capital.
City council member Christina Henderson called the new order "timely," but said responsibility is now spread across so many agencies that it has become "alphabet soup." The city's health department has just one staffer responsible for pest control, who is inspecting all eight city wards for West Nile virus through the end of October.
Researchers are also working on other methods. Sterile or Wolbachia-infected male mosquitoes have cut local populations by up to 95% where they have already been tested. Further ahead are "gene drives" — genes engineered to spread through a whole population and gradually collapse a species from within — along with rodents modified so they cannot carry Lyme disease. The order does not say which of these tools will be used in Washington. It requires the agencies to write rules before any decision is made.
The city's health department says it is ready to work with federal officials on the plan.