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Crews Spraying Around The Clock After A Billion Mosquitoes Blown In By Storms

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BROWARD (CBSMiami) – All the rain – and storms that go with it – is making mosquito season almost unbearable.

"They're right up there with roaches," said Kysha Rodriguez-Chomat. "Do they really serve a purpose?  Where are they on the food chain?"

South Florida residents like Rodriguez-Chomat and Anjo Molina said it feels like the mosquitoes are everywhere.

"It's like revenge of mosquitoes this year!" Molina said.

Well, Molina's hunch was right. Broward Mosquito Control says billions of salt marsh mosquitoes were blown in from the Everglades by recent storms.

"It's a tremendous number of mosquito right now.  This in the most we've seen in quite a while, many years," said Anh Ton with Broward Mosquito Control.

Related: Gov. Scott & State Health Talk Zika Preparedness

Crews in Broward are working overtime to kill the annoying pests.

Over the past two weeks, they've been getting about a thousand calls a day from people who want spraying near their homes.

"Mostly from the western part of the county – Southwest Ranches, Pembroke Pines, Miramar," said Ton.

In Miami-Dade, they're only getting about 75 calls a day.

The difference is Miami-Dade's western areas are less populated than Broward's – and they've used aerial spraying with Naled twice this summer to control the population.

In Broward, using Naled is rare.

"We only do that when we receive an extraordinary number of calls and when the elected officials in that municipality request that," explained Ton.

"So a request for Naled has to be put in?" CBS4's Ted Scouten asked him.

"Correct," he responded.

At the same time, both counties are working on Zika prevention.

Zika 101: Prevent Spread By Protecting Yourself

Broward Mosquito Control is applying for a patent for its newest method. They've created a nozzle that makes the spray droplets so small that it spreads further and uses half as much product.

"We were able to redesign it to get the droplet size so small that it shoots up in the air and it gets into people's back yards," explained Ton. "It's lite enough, it's small enough, that the wind will take care of the rest."

Click here for more information on the Zika virus or here for more Zika-related stories.

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