[Dana]

I'm getting my stuff all together for my trip. I just love all those travel size products even if they are a rip off in price...they are just so darn cute. Anyhoo, my question is, do I need bug spray in October? I have the sun block and all the other things like first aid items and what not, but I just thought about bug spray for some reason. Anyone been there in October and know if the buggies are biting or not? Thanks for the help. Yes, I am almost totally packed with more that a week and a half to go..I can't help it. Actually, I have been packing little here little there for about two weeks or so. I got the Disney in me. I can't help it. Thanks for any help regarding the bug spray. I just don't want to get there and need and have to pay $100 for a can of Off..ok not $100 but I can get it cheaper at home. Thanks all!:)

[quartz7]

Hi Dana,

Don't know about the bug spray, but I would probably just pack it just in case. Glad to hear that you pack way in advance. My hubby and I have a standing joke about that. My suitcase is out months in advance. It is something else I have to clean, but it just makes me smile when I see it. You have a great time with your daughter!!! Enjoy, Enjoy, Enjoy.

Janelle

[mickey]

Well, I ran across this article this morning about mosquitoes and WDW. Found it very interesting.

Orlando Sentinel Article

Disney bites mosquitoes
By Kevin Spear and Robert Johnson

Under laboratory magnification, the corpse of one female mosquito stood out among dozens of others captured in a patch of Walt Disney World swamp: The transparent skin of her swollen abdomen revealed muddy red contents.

She may have gorged on a bird. Disney hopes she didn't suck her bloody meal from the flesh of a guest who paid $50 to get into one of the theme parks.

In Florida, the nation's paradise for mosquitoes, few kill winged biters with the intensity and precision of Disney World. That's particularly critical now that West Nile virus, which has killed more than 80 people nationwide this year, has invaded Florida.

Disney has a full-service mosquito-control operation and even its own skeeter stalker -- Eric Elbert.

Every day, Elbert buttons his oxford shirt tight at the neck and sleeves and goes into the swamps to set and retrieve traps, then back to his lab to produce the equivalent of a behind-enemy-lines warfare scouting report. He details where mosquitoes are hatching, their concentrations, their movements and their diseases. Then he goes home. Killing is left to others, who perform the task without mercy.

Protecting 38 million vacationers a year from disease-carrying mosquitoes in 30 square miles checkered with swamp is like raising free-range chickens on an African savanna filled with starved jackals.

But Disney tries really hard. Crews spray relentlessly. Every morning, every evening.

"Our guests come to Walt Disney World to escape the realities of life, and getting bit by mosquitoes isn't conducive to that," Disney spokeswoman Rena Callahan said. "We work very hard to make sure that our guests have a comfortable experience and fun time."

But Disney can't kill all the pests, and so must tread a fine line.

Letter cautions guests

Scaring guests by telling them they could get the deadly West Nile virus from a mosquito bite means they might not go out at night to shop or visit the shows or restaurants. The entertainment giant has tried to keep guests informed without leaving them terrified. For example, management started handing out letters about five weeks ago at Disney hotels telling guests about the Florida Department of Health's alert for West Nile in Orange County. The letter is printed on colorful Mickey Mouse stationery.

Although the letter avoids using such words as warning or danger, it does caution guests to "Avoid outdoor activities at dusk and dawn when mosquitoes are likely to be active and biting; if you must be outdoors when mosquitoes are active, cover up by wearing shoes, socks, and pants and a long-sleeved shirt; and use mosquito repellent containing DEET according to manufacturers' directions."

The letter does not mention that 1,641 people across the nation have contracted West Nile this year in 31 states and Washington, D.C. The most recent increase in cases is in Illinois.

"We are distributing the letters to all resort guests because we believe it is important information to share, particularly since many of our guests are from other parts of the country and the world and may not be aware of current Florida news," Callahan said.

Disney World also offers free mosquito repellent to golfers on its courses, horseback riders on woodsy trails and campers at the communal bonfire at Fort Wilderness. It's for sale in the theme parks.

Some visitors unaware

Word of the West Nile threat isn't getting to everyone, however.

"We've never heard of it," said Derek Hyndman, an engineer from Scotland who arrived with his wife, Betty, a week ago.

The couple, who are staying at the Royal Plaza hotel at Disney World, hadn't been told to wear repellent -- and it showed. Hyndman, who was wearing a tank top and shorts, pointed to welts on his arms and legs and said: "There are a lot of mosquitoes here. This place is a swamp, after all."

Swamp has its price

Hyndman likely didn't know how right he is. Disney World is not just surrounded by swamp -- much of it is a swamp. The entertainment giant promised not to develop thousands of wetland acres in exchange for permits to build hotels and theme parks.

Disney used wet, densely wooded tracts to naturally seclude golf courses, theme parks and hotels from one another and from support facilities such as the factory-sized laundry and the warehouse-sized vehicle-repair shop. Mosquitoes are very grateful for this. Deep in the wetlands, they hatch in standing water, wiggle through their larval stage and swarm into the twilight just as thousands of Disney guests are getting cranked up for an evening of fun.

Pesticides reduce threat

Spraying clouds of insecticide over guests creates bad PR, so Disney wages its battles along 86 miles of canals, service roads, firebreaks, power lines, fields and fences. They use the same two pesticides widely sprayed all around Florida that are considered safe by state and federal environmental authorities. Employees spray the same routes twice a day, far exceeding the routines of other mosquito districts in Florida.

Toward a perfect world

"Disney shoots for the perfect world, and the perfect world doesn't have mosquitoes," said John Beidler, mosquito-control director in Indian River County for 50 years.

If there's any part of Disney property where the spraying is less thorough, it's at the Fort Wilderness campground. Spray-truck drivers are ordered to skip spots where guests are present, and lots of them are outdoors at the campground. Sometimes 80 percent of Fort Wilderness gets sprayed; sometimes less than 50 percent, said Ray Maxwell, director of the Reedy Creek district.

"We don't want to annoy people with the odor," he said.

Disney is particularly thorough at its Animal Kingdom attraction, Callahan said. None of the exotic creatures on display has come down with West Nile, she said.

Disney's stealth weapon, however, is Elbert, who spends much of life doused in bug repellent.

"I may smell bad, but I won't be bitten," he said.

Several mornings a week, Elbert and an assistant deploy 67 traps around Disney's property.

"That is probably more concentrated than anywhere else," said Mark Latham, Florida Mosquito Control Association president.

To lure mosquitoes, the traps release a continual trickle of carbon dioxide -- the same thing that attracts them to humans. A single trap can net thousands of mosquitoes in a night. Elbert brings the bugs to his no-frills laboratory, drops them in an industrial freezer for a quick death and then counts bodies.

Appreciating the beauty

Using a microscope, he identifies some species by such details as the color of scrotum scales or hair patterns on hind legs. He notes the age of females, when they are full of blood and when they are carrying eggs.

All that staring at one of the world's most hated insects has brought Elbert an appreciation.

"There are some real beautiful mosquitoes," he said, admitting a fondness for long legs and a honey hue.

About half of the 75 species found statewide have been caught on Disney property. But during rainy seasons, the most common is the Culex nigripalpus, the dreaded carrier of West Nile virus and other encephalitis germs.

That's the reason Disney monitors for mosquito-borne diseases with the only "sentinel" chickens in Florida that don't belong to a city or county.

Eight flocks are kept in pens not far from Epcot's 164-foot geodesic dome Spaceship Earth, Cinderella Castle in the Magic Kingdom, and the Fort Wilderness campground, among other popular spots. Disney acknowledges that some of its chickens have contracted West Nile virus, as have chickens in other parts of Central Florida.

Measured by staff and equipment, Disney's mosquito-killing operation is modest.

By comparison, Lee County, in southwest Florida, runs the biggest operation in the nation if not the world. The annual budget of $12 million includes 100 employees and two dozen aircraft for aerial spraying. Mosquito controllers will even perform specialized services, such as ensuring that a backyard wedding can be conducted without the buzzing of unwanted guests.

But if Lee County wages conventional war, Disney employs special-forces-type tactics -- don't harm noncombatants inside the theme parks and stay clear of the demilitarized zones of wetlands.

Dawn patrol

The task is carried out by only seven pickup trucks equipped with sprayers.

At 5 a.m. on a recent morning, the supervisor for spraying, Scott Glasscock, got behind the wheel of one of those trucks. He switched on a flashing light, started the 18-horsepower motor that runs the sprayer, and switched on a gadget that uses satellite positioning to control the flow of pesticide.

Death in a droplet

The fogger at the back of Glasscock's truck churned liquid pesticide into mist so fine it resembled steam or smoke. An ounce becomes billions of droplets that drift through the air like miniature aerial landmines. At 17 microns in diameter, each drop is much tinier than a mosquito eye, which is smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.

Death occurs when a hair on a mosquito snares a droplet, holding it while the bug inhales the pesticide through one of its many breathing orifices. The poison induces a kind of spastic jitterbugging. Mosquitoes die from a fried nervous system in as little as 10 minutes. Even milder doses send them into such a frenzy they break off legs.

Dawn had not yet hinted at the sky when Glasscock finished, having sprayed a part of Disney World that guests would never think of as vacationland. Only now and then did a familiar landmark appear in the distance, such as the top of the Magic Kingdom castle.

"We don't want any guests to be aware of our work," Glasscock said. "It's part of the Disney theme."

[Disneylover]

Hi Dana,,,

As I sit here, with my "Illuminations" CD blasting in the background, I must say I am jealous!! One week to go!!,,:D
As the article states, they do leave an advisory in your room, that will be there when you arrive, letting you know about mosquitos,the health department alert etc. This actually startled me a bit, becuase I wasn'e expecting it I guess, but that is the last you hear about it. At the time (late August), I didn't know that they sprayed there everyday, and I must say, I don't recall even seeing a mosquito there, nobody in my family had a bite, and we didn't have any bug spray,,,,but who knows,,,I would say bring it, just in case.

HAVE A GREAT TIME!!!!,,,,,,and if you have room,,,let me know!:)

[dab]

We went last October 21-28 and never had any problems but it doesn't take up too much room to pack a bottle of bug repellent! I did get 2 bites on my legs last week and wasn't wearing any repellent... my fault! After that early evening walk I learned to lotion up first! Better safe than sorry!

[kendeann]

:!: Our trip in November, 2000 I came back with several bites around the angles where my jeans/pants would stop and had
sandles on. We noticed them after dusk like near the pool at Port Orleans when we would go for our evening strolls and head to
get our evening cocktail at the pool's bar.
I wish I would of bought some spray in my emergency bag.
I suppose it depends on if they have had a wet season or if you are near a resort with a river/lake.
Good Luck and have a great time!!!

[Dana]

Thanks for the nice wishes on my trip all. I guess a little can/bottle of bug stuff can't hurt. I probally have somethingaround here. I do not want to be itching my way through WDW...lol