Here’s what 1 million mosquitoes looks like

LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK) – Have you ever felt like you were being attacked by 1 million mosquitoes? You might have a better idea of what that actually looks like now, thanks to researchers in Florida.

It’s not unusual to see the folks at Lee County Mosquito Control collect mosquitoes.

“We’re collecting these … all the time,” said Erik Jackson, the deputy director of mosquito control.

But it is unusual to see them collect 1 million of them.

“We’ve had people call and say the mosquitoes are terrible, we got a million mosquitoes around us,” Jackson said. “So, I mean, we’ve heard that so often you know, when there is that biting pressure, when the mosquitoes are around. I thought, ‘You know, people really need to see what a million mosquitoes looks like.’”

The massive collection was piled up high in a bright orange Home Depot bucket.

“I’m walking down the hallway, and I see our biologists there with a pile of mosquitoes sitting on the table. I think several of us came in to take pictures,” Jackson said.

Jackson said the picture of the mosquitoes got Twitter talking.

They weren’t collected for fun, however. They were collected for science and are part of a project with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to see if trapping is good for actual mosquito control instead of just research purposes.

“I mean, you look at this, you think it’s promising but...we’ll see,” Jackson said.

The 1 million mosquitoes were trapped in one area of Sanibel Island in the summer of 2021. With another year of research ahead, scientists are hopeful they can take some of the bite out of future mosquito seasons.