C-34 Mosquito Impoundment Project

1970s in FloridaCocoa Beach, FloridaFlies and humansInsect controlPest control campaigns

The C-34 Mosquito Impoundment Project was a collaboration in the Thousand Islands during the 1970s between Brevard County Mosquito Control, The Florida Medical Entomological Laboratory, and NASA. This project was conducted to test the ability of remote sensing to detect flooding stress in mangroves during flooding for mosquito control. Mosquito control in the Cocoa Beach area was initially provided by application of various pesticides, including DDT. Cocoa Beach was the site of initial field tests for DDT, and one of the first locations where resistance was noted. This led to use of source reduction in addition to pesticides. Source reduction is a mechanical modification of habitat to decrease mosquito production. The saltmarsh mosquito will not lay its eggs in standing water, preferring seasonally-flooded sand or mud instead. The concept behind source reduction is to convert seasonally-flooded marsh to either upland or submerged land. Source reduction began to be used in the late 1950s in Cocoa Beach. In this beginning phase small ditches were dug through the islands to allow water movement and fish access to inner areas of the succulent marsh. This approach had limited success. During the late 1960s Brevard County Mosquito Control began dredging the Thousand Islands south of Minutemen Causeway to eliminate ephemeral ponds necessary for saltmarsh mosquito breeding. This destruction of wetlands set the stage for an approach that would retain wetlands but still reduce the production of saltmarsh mosquitoes. This approach is known as impoundment, in which an area of salt marsh is surrounded by a dike with a means to flood and empty the marsh, generally by pump.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article C-34 Mosquito Impoundment Project (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

C-34 Mosquito Impoundment Project
Minutemen Causeway,

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Continue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude	Longitude
N 28.3227845 °	E -80.6281073 °

placeShow on map

Address

Minutemen Causeway

Minutemen Causeway
32932
Florida, United States
mapOpen on Google Maps

Nearby Places

Thousand Islands (Cocoa Beach)

The Thousand Islands are a group of natural, modified, and spoil islands in the Banana River Lagoon, Cocoa Beach, in Brevard County, Florida. From the late 1950s to the early 1970s the islands were reshaped by development and efforts to control mosquitoes as the population of Brevard grew during the initial period of the space program at Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center.

Cocoa Beach High School

Cocoa Beach Jr./Sr. High School (formerly Cocoa Beach High School) is a public junior/senior high school that is a part of the Brevard County Public School System with students in grades seven through twelfth located in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Founded in 1964 it is one of two high schools in Brevard county to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. The school's mascot is the Minuteman and current principal is Dr. Mark Rendell.

Cocoa Beach Glass Bank

The Cocoa Beach Glass Bank, officially known as The First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Cocoa – Cocoa Beach Branch, was a five-story glass building in Cocoa Beach, Florida. It officially opened in April 1962, and fell into disrepair in the late 1970s after the end of the space race.

Cocoa Beach, Florida

Cocoa Beach is a city in Brevard County, Florida, United States. The population was 11,539 at the 2018 United States Census. It is part of the Palm Bay–Melbourne–Titusville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Banana River

The Banana River is a 31-mile-long (50 km) lagoon that lies between Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island in Brevard County, Florida in the United States. It is part of the Indian River Lagoon system, and connects at its south end to the Indian River; it is the only part of the lagoon system not in the Intracoastal Waterway. It also has an outlet to the Atlantic Ocean via a lock into Port Canaveral. The lagoon includes salt marshes, mangrove swamps, seagrass beds, drift algae, oyster bars, tidal flats, and spoil islands, providing habitats for many marine species. These are brackish waters mixed of salt and fresh water; waist deep with a soft bottom sand/grass. Commercial and recreational activities in the lagoon generate more than US$ 800 million annually for the local economy.Historically, the Banana River was a continuous waterway that completely separated Merritt Island from Cape Canaveral (which was considered part of the mainland until the construction of the Haulover Canal). In 1964, the Crawlerway was built at Kennedy Space Center, connecting Merritt Island to Cape Canaveral and dividing the Banana River into northern and southern lagoons.

Harbor Cay Condominium collapse

The Harbour Cay Condominium was a five-story flat plate residential development project in Cocoa Beach (Brevard County, Florida, United States) that collapsed during construction on March 27, 1981. Eleven workers were killed and 27 injured.The building, being constructed by the Univel Corporation of Cocoa Beach, collapsed as workers were completing its framework by pouring concrete for the roof. The accident led to more rigorous enforcement of engineering and construction codes in Florida and elsewhere.

Horti Point

Horti Point is a headland on Merritt Island in Brevard County, Florida.

Angel City, Florida

Angel City is a populated place on the Horti Point peninsula of Merritt Island, in Brevard County, Florida, United States. Angel City had a post office between 1927 and 1931. It is believed that the community was named for an early settler, John Angel. Hattie Worley, wife of Oscar Worley, the bridge tender, named Angel City after the first homesteader, Captain Angel from Rhode Island.

South Cocoa Beach, Florida

South Cocoa Beach is an unincorporated community between Cocoa Beach and Patrick Space Force Base, in Brevard County, Florida, US. Subdivisions include Crescent Beach and Orlando Beach, the latter at the intersection of 35th Street and State Road A1A. South Cocoa Beach is located between the causeways of State Road 520 and State Road 404.

Georgiana, Florida

Georgiana is a populated place located on Merritt Island in Brevard County, Florida at latitude 28.288673N and longitude 80.671398W. The elevation is 10 feet. It is about five miles south of the 520 Causeway, situated where the island is about a half-mile wide.

Merritt Island Causeway

The Merritt Island Causeway, mostly in Merritt Island, connects Cocoa, Merritt Island, Florida, and Cocoa Beach, Florida. The causeway transits the Willard Peebles bridge over the Banana River Lagoon. In the 1960s, SR A1A was routed over the eastern causeway from present day SR 520 and SR A1A, to the present day intersection of SR 520 and SR 3 on Merritt Island. The eastern section is known as the Cocoa Beach Causeway.