PROVO, Utah — A group in Utah County may look like they're taking a leisurely bike ride this summer, but they're actually part of a mosquito abatement team armed with treatment packets.
The riders travel throughout the county, some upwards of 50 miles each day, targeting storm drains by the hundreds.
“Even though there’s just a little bit of water in [storm drains], it’s one of the most ideal places a mosquito can breed," explained Jason Bird, Director, Utah County Mosquito Abatement.
Even the bikers said their identities are often mistaken.
“A lot of people think we’re littering!” said one.
But their roles have just become even more significant.
“It’s a new world out there. It has really changed the dynamics and the complexity in my job," said Utah County Director of IT Patrick Wawro.
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Wawro shared how the county is finding ways to use AI to keep up with rapid growth. They recently trained a model to identify storm drains from aerial imagery, and Wawro said there were at least 30,000 that they weren't aware of.
The new tool gives Bird’s team a much more complete view of the task at hand, and potentially saves the county significant time and money when future maps are created.
“The next time, we can say, here’s the model - now you do it," said Wawro. “Not only is it cheaper today. But it is exponentially cheaper every time we do it again in the future, because it’s a repeatable analysis.”
So if you see a biker dropping something in your storm drain this summer, chances are they’re simply saving you from some mosquito bites.
