Every South Florida mosquito story this season has been a dengue story. As of the state's newest surveillance report there is a second virus on the board, and Florida's only locally acquired case of it is in Miami-Dade County.
What the newest report actually says
Florida's arbovirus surveillance report for September 20 through 26, 2026 states that one case of locally acquired chikungunya fever has been reported in Miami-Dade County, with onset in August (Source: Florida Arbovirus Surveillance Week 38, floridahealth.gov, Sept 20-26, 2026). One case. That is the entire statewide local total for the year, and unlike the dengue outbreak it sits in our area rather than Tampa Bay.
The same report counts 76 travel-associated chikungunya cases statewide for 2026, with Miami-Dade at 46, Broward at 4 and Palm Beach at 4 (Source: same report). Those two categories are not the same thing and should never be added together. Travel-associated means the person was infected somewhere else and flew home with it. Locally acquired means a mosquito here did it.
Imported cases still matter. Each one is a person carrying virus in their blood, in a county full of the exact mosquito that transmits it. That is how an imported case becomes a local one, and in August it worked once.
The dengue numbers, for context
Same report: 252 locally acquired dengue cases in 2026 across seven counties, with 62 of those reported in that one week (Source: Week 38 report). The county line in that sentence puts Hillsborough at 223 and Miami-Dade at 8. Palm Beach and Polk are listed without counts I could pin to an explicit sentence, so I am not attaching numbers to them. Broward does not appear on the locally acquired dengue list at all.
CBS Miami, reporting October 2, described Florida's outbreak as appearing to be the largest in several decades in the continental United States, and said officials in Hillsborough and surrounding counties have declared local emergencies (Source: CBS Miami, Oct 2, 2026). Hillsborough is Tampa Bay, and it holds 223 of the 252. South Florida is not the center of this outbreak and I am not going to dress it up as one.
On status, the Week 38 report lists Miami-Dade under a mosquito-borne illness alert and Palm Beach under an advisory, the lower of the two tiers (Source: Week 38 report). Broward is named in neither. That status block is stamped as of August 29, so read it as the most recent published list rather than as this morning's conditions.
What chikungunya actually feels like
Worth knowing, because people now assume any mosquito fever is dengue. Chikungunya symptoms appear 3 to 7 days after a bite, and the most common ones are fever and joint pain. Most people feel better within a week, but the joint pain can persist for months. Newborns, adults over 65, and people with underlying medical conditions are at higher risk of severe outcomes (Source: CDC chikungunya symptom guidance, cdc.gov, retrieved Oct 5, 2026).
The joint pain is the tell. Dengue tends to get described as pain behind the eyes with a deep muscle ache. Chikungunya lands in the joints and can stay there after the fever is gone. Either way, mention recent mosquito bites to your doctor instead of waiting it out.
The yard work does not change
Here is the one convenient thing about a second virus. Both ride the same mosquito, Aedes aegypti, so prevention is identical. It is a daytime biter, it breeds in containers on your property rather than in the canal, and it does not travel far, so the source is almost always your yard or your neighbor's.
Walk the property once a week and dump everything holding water: plant saucers, bromeliad cups, tarp folds, kid toys, clogged gutters, the boat cover, garbage can lids. Put repellent on for the 8 a.m. dog walk, not just the sunset cookout.
Our service runs two products. The In2Care station is natural-based and works on larvae, using the mosquito itself to carry treatment back to breeding water you will never find on your own. The control barrier product goes on resting areas and kills adult mosquitoes on contact, with 10 to 17 days of residual depending on rain and sun exposure. That one is not natural and I will not call it that. It is label-directed application and it contains no neonicotinoids.
If your yard has been bad this fall, call the office or use the contact form on our site and we will come walk it with you.
Sources are cited inline. Questions about your own property? Call 561-443-3333 or request a free quote.