SPRING HILL —
Mark Marino has slowly watched as the pool next door turned from a pretty Carolina blue to Florida swamp brown.
The house on Countrywood Court in Spring Hill went into foreclosure about a year ago and Marino feels like it’s become more than an eyesore; it’s become a nuisance this summer.
“I have never seen the infestation of mosquitoes in this area as much as I’ve seen this year,” he said as he stood in front of the white house that has vines growing up the sidewalk to the front doorway.” A home such as this should not violate our peace.”
Foreclosure sales can be a long process, and often times it takes a while for ownership to transfer from one to another, like a bank per se. So a week ago Friday, Marino called Hernando County Mosquito Control, whose inspectors came and treated the pool. But he and some of his neighbors believe that local governments shouldn’t have to bear all the responsibility in controlling the situation.
“We need not only the county, but we need state legislation to impose certain mandates on these lending institutions when {these houses} are abandoned,” said Manny Toro.
Marino’s complaint, and all here in Hernando County, make it to Guangye Hu, director of Mosquito Control.
“If the pool is accessible, we can put mosquito fish or a chemical in it,” Hu said. “If there’s no access to it, we can’t get it.”
Since the housing crisis started, the number of complaints about pools has more than tripled in Hernando County. For fiscal year 2006-2007, there were 70. By fiscal year 2008-2009, there were more than 268.
Abandoned pools, it seems, have become an issue for every Florida county.
“We’ve been dealing with the foreclosed pool situation for four or five years,” said Nancy Iannotti, district operations manager for Pinellas County Mosquito Control. “Some of the companies are putting tarps on top of the pools and sometimes that will control the mosquito population. Sometimes, though, the tarps will actually hold water themselves.”
Neighbors experiencing nuisance pools can look for the number of a property preservation company that’s usually listed on a flier somewhere outside of the house.
County Code Enforcement agents have the power to place a lien on a home’s title, which could force owners or banks to clean up the property. Once they file the lien it can create problems for the mortgage holder. But mosquito control inspectors have one main focus: killing the nuisance.
Unfortunately, enforcement sometimes falls into a gray area.
“It’s a difficult problem because we want to just control the mosquitoes,” Iannotti said. “It’s hard for a homeowner that’s losing their home, that could be facing bankruptcy … to take action because they’re getting an additional fine of $200 a day.”
Iannotti said if a pool is not locked, inspectors can use gambusia, the mosquito fish that Dr. Hu spoke of, to munch down on the problem. If there’s a locked gate, inspectors can toss larvicide tablets from inside a neighbor’s fence, which can treat a pool for up to three weeks.