In 2024, both Brooklyn and Queens recorded 12 confirmed West Nile disease cases each — the highest of any borough in New York City. In 2025, New York City mosquitoes tested positive for Jamestown Canyon virus for the first time in the city’s history. These aren’t statistics from somewhere else. They’re from the neighborhoods we’ve been treating for over fifty years.
The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene runs an active mosquito surveillance and larviciding program, and in May 2025 conducted aerial larviciding across marshes and wetlands in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. What that program does not cover is private property. Your backyard, your rooftop, your shared courtyard — that’s your responsibility. The city handles the wetlands along Jamaica Bay and the marshes near the Belt Parkway. Everything inside your property line is on you.
That distinction matters more than most people realize. Properties near Prospect Park, Jamaica Bay, and Flushing Meadows-Corona Park face elevated mosquito pressure that no municipal program will address. If you’re in Park Slope, Crown Heights, Howard Beach, or any neighborhood that backs up to green space or wetlands, you’re dealing with a permanent mosquito reservoir nearby — and a seasonal program is the only practical answer.