Celebrate Independence! On or before November 3, 2026, Elect Ed Slavin to Anastasia Mosquito Control Board of St. Johns County

Election is on November 3. 

To St. Johns County voters: On November 3, 2026, may I please have the honor of your votes for Commissioner of the Anastasia Mosquito District of St. Johns County?

Endorsed by both Historic City News and St. Johns County Democratic Party in 2024.

Here's my 2024 Q&A with the League of Women Voters:

What motivated you to run for office?

It's our money. I've been a watchdog on mosquito control since 2006. Mosquitoes could bring us the next global pandemic. We will be prepared with data, research, education, and environmentally-friendly, non-toxic natural pesticides. My dad was an 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper, infected with malaria in Sicily. Dad recovered in Army hospitals, but we saw dad suffer lifetime effects. LWV's Ms. Robin Nadeau asked me to help her investigate Anastasia Mosquito Control of St. Johns County, buying a $1.8 million no-bid, luxury Bell Jet Long Ranger helicopter incapable of killing a single skeeter, not unlike buying a Porsche to propel a snowplow. We persuaded AMCD to cancel illegal, no-bid helicopter contract, saving $1.8 million in 2007.  

What do you see as the most pressing issues for this office and how do you propose to address them?
Advancing research and education while protecting scientific integrity and employee whistleblower rights; safeguarding the independence of AMCD, an independent scientific and technical organization; protecting public health, the environment and public funds. Let's assure that "whistleblower" ethical employees are heard and heeded whenever they raise concerns. Let's resist any further effort by the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners to take over independent AMCD, as attempted by former SJC County Administrator Michael Wanchick and County Commission Chairmen. I oppose allowing arbitration clauses in AMCD contracts, Yes, I've been a watchdog of mosquito control environmental protection and spending since December 2006.

What training, experience, and characteristics qualify you for this position?
Helped persuade our independent mosquito district to cancel unwise, no-bid luxury $1.8 million helicopter contract. Won declassification of our frail planet's largest-ever mercury pollution event (Oak Ridge, Tenn. Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Plant),triggering nationwide cleanups; recommended for Pulitzer Prize by DA. Clerked for USDOL Chief Administrative Law Judge Nahum Litt and Judge Charles Rippey. Staffer for Senators Ted Kennedy, Gary Hart & Jim Sasser. B.S.F.S., Georgetown U.; J.D., Memphis State U. Your watchdog, termed an "environmental hero" by FOLIO WEEKLY (after reporting City's illegal dumping of landfill in lake and illegal sewage effluent pollution of our saltwater marsh). Shall we ask questions, demand answers & expect democracy?

How important are environmental concerns when making decisions for the Anastasia Mosquito Control District?
Very important

Explain your answer.
Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" informs good science and use of non-toxic natural pesticides as much as possible. Amid global climate change, the next pandemic could be a mosquito-borne disease. Let's protect AMCD independence, education and applied research to protect public health and our environment. I support AMCD's leadership on natural pesticides. I once reported FEMA and AMCD to federal environmental law officials when bald eagles were exposed to organophosphate pesticides. Support AMCD working with other mosquito control districts and officials to share scientific knowledge to protect all of us "non-target species": mosquito control workers, residents, tourists, pets, horses, livestock, bees and other pollinators, flora and fauna. 

St. Johns County is growing rapidly. How does this impact the management of mosquito control?
Overdevelopment increases the expense of mosquito control and increases exposure of families to mosquitoes from wetlands. St. Johns County Commissioners, developers and their big money clout decide way too many unwise development decisions. This requires our nimble small mosquito control special taxing district to innovate, with sensitive adaptation of mosquito control techniques to protect entire new neighborhoods, which seem to spring up overnight, adjoining wetlands. Public education, applied research, sound science-based policies and non-toxic mosquito control methods, are all essential to protecting public health from mosquito-borne diseases. AMCD exists to prevent any outbreaks of deadly mosquito-borne diseases. We must do it right!

Mosquito-Borne Illness Rarely Seen in U.S. Is Suspected on Long Island. (Joseph Goldstein, NY Times, September 25, 2025)

On or before November 3, 2026, I would be honored to have your votes for Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County. The next global pandemic could be spread by one or more mosquito-born diseases. My late Father was bitten by a swamp mosquito contracted malaria in Sicily in 1943, where he fought Nazis with the 82nd ABN DIVN:  (My Dad  helped liberate the first French town from the Nazis on D-Day before the sun even rose that day.)  Malaria changed my Father's life, my Mother;s life and my life.  I'm  blessed and lucky to be alive.  My Mother and Father prayed for twelve (12) years to Saint Jude due to their difficulties in conceiving a child, the likely result of malaria on my Father. Due to my Father's malaria, my .Mother said the chances of my being born were less than one in 100,000.  I've been an outspoken advocate for mosquito control and open government here since 2006. Let me be your watchdog. 

From The New York Times:

Mosquito-Borne Illness Rarely Seen in U.S. Is Suspected on Long Island

Chikungunya, which is endemic in parts of South America, Africa and Asia, may be the cause of a woman’s illness.

Listen to this article · 5:08 min Learn more

Mosquitoes spread the disease called chikungunya, which can cause debilitating joint pain.Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times

By Joseph Goldstein

Sept. 25, 2025

Health officials said they were investigating whether the debilitating mosquito-borne virus chikungunya was circulating in New York after a woman tested positive on Long Island in a preliminary screening.

Although the virus has exacted a steep toll across parts of South America, Africa and Asia during the past 20 years, the United States has seen scant local transmission. The last time the disease was known to have been transmitted locally in the United States was about a decade ago, when fewer than 15 cases were detected in Florida and Texas.

But a 60-year-old woman in the Town of Hempstead, a hamlet in central Nassau County that is about 20 miles east of Manhattan, said she had tested positive for the virus in a preliminary screening test this month. Her blood samples have been sent to the state Health Department’s public health laboratory in Albany to confirm a diagnosis, a Nassau County official said.

“The New York State Department of Health is investigating a possible locally acquired case of chikungunya virus,” a department spokeswoman, Danielle De Souza, said in a statement. “No locally acquired cases have ever been reported in New York State, and the risk to the public remains very low.”

In an interview, the woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive health matter, said she had not traveled anywhere recently and had been shocked when she saw the test results. She said she wanted to share her experience out of concern that the virus was circulating undetected and that others might be falling ill, too. She worried that doctors were not even considering chikungunya as a possible diagnosis.

She said that she fell ill a month ago, on Aug. 21, and was stricken with severe joint pain, the classic symptom of chikungunya. Pain racked her feet, ankles, knees, wrists, hands and shoulders, especially her right shoulder. It felt like it was on fire, almost as though it were being pulled apart, she said.

Chikungunya is known for causing debilitating joint pain, which can clear up quickly or linger for months or even years, contributing to a surge in new disabilities in countries that see outbreaks.

If the woman is confirmed to have chikungunya, it would signify the arrival of a new public health threat from arthropods in the New York region. Ticks already present a serious health peril on Long Island, where their bites sicken thousands of people each year. Suffolk County, which includes the eastern two-thirds of the island, has more Lyme disease cases some years than any other county in the United States.

Long Island has also been a hot spot for alpha-gal syndrome, a meat allergy linked to tick bites, including those from the lone star tick. That type of tick arrived on Long Island about 50 years agoand is the dominant tick in parts of Suffolk County. More than 3,700 cases of alpha-gal syndrome were detected in the county between 2017 and 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Chikungunya has surged globally as climate change expands the range of the mosquitoes that carry it. China has faced a major outbreak this year, and the disease has been circulating in France and Italy, too. It is now endemic across much of the Caribbean and South and Central America.

The disease was first identified in Tanzania in the early 1950s. Its name comes from the Kimakonde language spoken there and means “that which bends up.” The virus would periodically cause waves of illness. India experienced a massive outbreak between 2005 and 2007.

The disease established itself in the Western Hemisphere starting in late 2013, when it was detected on St. Martin. It tore though the Caribbean, sickening hundreds of thousands of people in that first year alone. New Yorkers returning from trips sometimes brought the virus back home with them, but there were few signs of any local transmission.

New York was once viewed as relatively insulated from chikungunya, partly because the mosquito that seemed to be the main vector, the Aedes aegypti, or yellow fever mosquito, is not naturally found there. Increasingly, another mosquito, Aedes albopictus, commonly known as the Asian tiger mosquito, is driving chikungunya outbreaks. That mosquito is a relative newcomer to the United States, but its range now extends to parts of New York.

The Nassau County woman said that her recent illness caused joint pain in her shoulder so severe that she struggled to sleep or do much of anything at all. Though the fiery pain has abated somewhat, she still has difficulty walking because of pain in the ball of her foot.

Dr. Bruce Farber, an infectious disease expert at Northwell Health, the state’s largest hospital system, said that if chikungunya had arrived in New York, an infected mosquito might have hitched a ride on a plane.

“Mosquitoes are sometimes carried back in luggage or in airplanes,” he said.

“That’s the most likely way,” he said, noting that malaria sometimes spreads in a limited fashion through the same means, a phenomenon called “airport malaria.”

Joseph Goldstein covers health care in New York for The Times, following years of criminal justice and police reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 26, 2025, Section A, Page 22 of the New York edition with the headline: Mosquito-Borne Illness Rarely Seen in the U.S. Is Suspected on Long Island. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

See more on: Health Department (NYS)

Iceland Announces an Unfortunate First: Mosquitoes (Amelia Nierenberg, NY Times, October 22, 2025)

To St. Johns County Voters: Please save the day: November 3, 2026 is the election for Anastasia Mosquito Control Commission of St. Johns County, which works to protect public health from deadly mosquito-born diseases, which kill one million people annually.  Non-partisan independent taxing district. I am a candidate and would be honored to have your vote.  

Iceland Announces an Unfortunate First: Mosquitoes

Iceland was one of the only mosquito-free places in the world, at least according to its records. Not anymore.

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A common house mosquito (culex pipiens), a different type from the ones found in Iceland last week.Credit...Martin Lelievre/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Amelia Nierenberg

Oct. 22, 2025

Iceland lost the distinction this month of being one of the last places in the world without a confirmed sighting of wild mosquitoes. And their presence was discovered only because of a rope in a garden doused in sugary red wine.

A bug enthusiast named Bjorn Hjaltason has spent years attracting insects to his property using a method known as “wine roping,” in which fabric dipped in sugared wine is used as a lure. Usually, the wine draws moths, according to Matthias S. Alfredsson, an entomologist at the Natural Science Institute of Iceland who occasionally collaborates with Mr. Hjaltason on projects.

But last Thursday, Mr. Hjaltason noticed an unusual bug, said Mr. Alfredsson. Could it be a mosquito? He sent a photo to Mr. Alfredsson, who went to look in person. (Mr. Hjaltason did not respond to requests for comment.)

Soon, Mr. Alfredsson confirmed Mr. Hjaltason’s hunch:

Three mosquitoes — two females and a male — were eventually discovered at the property.

“This is the first time” that mosquitoes have been found in the wild of Iceland, Mr. Alfredsson wrote in an email. The Natural Science Institute announced the discovery in a statement on Tuesday.

The question for Icelandic scientists is whether they will be short-lived tourists or the beginning of a new, native population. But either way, mosquito experts say the discovery is a sign of how rapid climate change and globalization are changing Iceland.

“We should not be surprised that we see mosquitoes popping up in very strange localities,” said Bart Knols, a Dutch mosquito expert and a founder of MalariaWorld, which gathers and shares malaria research.

Iceland has seen a spike in insect life over the past four decades or so, said Gisli Mar Gislason, a professor emeritus at the University of Iceland who studied aquatic insects and is writing a book on Icelandic insect identification with Mr. Alfredsson, Mr. Hjaltason and another entomologist.

Recently, that growth has coincided with the skyrocketing number of international travelers visiting the geographically isolated nation. The torrent of planes, cruise ships and cargo boats gives insects more chances to hitch a ride, Dr. Gislason said.

At the same time, climate change has transformed the country. One Icelandic glacier, Okjokull, has completely melted away while some native plants are at risk of extinction as temperatures rise and invasive species arrive.

“Insect numbers increase with increasing heat,” said Dr. Gislason, who until now had the honor of having caught the only mosquito in Iceland. (In the 1980s, at the main airport, he trapped one flying in a plane that had just arrived from Greenland.)

“With increasing temperatures,” he continued, “There are more opportunities for species from warmer areas to colonize Iceland.”

Enter the mosquitoes. Given that these three were found near Reykjavik, the capital, and an international harbor, they most likely came from abroad, experts said.

“With only three specimens found,” Dr. Gislason said, “I would guess it’s a very recent arrival.”

But with the climate warming, it is plausible they could survive in Iceland, according to Dr. Knols. “We should not be surprised if — maybe just for a short period — that mosquitoes manage to establish themselves and produce the next generation,” he added.

Dr. Gislason, who reviewed photos of the three specimens, said a mosquito population could spread quickly, pointing to no-see-ums (Ceratopogonidae). Those bugs, which also cause itchy bites, appeared only a decade earlier, he said. Now, 

If this population establishes itself, as I presume it will, it may spread as fast as the no-see-ums,” he said.

These specific mosquitoes could also be able to endure the harsh Icelandic climate. Mr. Alfredsson identified them as Culiseta annulata, a variety of mosquito that can survive long periods of freezing temperatures and already lives in the Nordic region, the Natural Science Institute said in a statement.

While it is impossible to know if these are truly Iceland’s first mosquitoes, the country has extensive insect monitoring, meaning a previous population would have most likely been detected, Mr. Alfredsson said. If there were a few mosquitoes in the past, he added, they probably died out without establishing a foothold.

It is not yet clear whether this triad is a fluke or a sign of a new reality; Mr. Alfredsson said more monitoring would be needed to see if they have “truly become established in Iceland.”

For now, the three are sticking around. Currently, Mr. Alfredsson wrote, all three “are stored in my freezer.”

Amelia Nierenberg is a Times reporter covering international news from London.