Where Have All the Mosquitoes Gone in Disney World?

When you arrive at the Walt Disney World Resort, time seemingly stands still. You walk through the gates of Magic Kingdom and lose all sense of time and space. You forget about everything happening back home- school, work, responsibility- and dive into the World of Disney.

This is just one of the many things that Guests take for granted on a Disney vacation. Disney makes life so easy that we just forget the inconveniences of everyday life.

There are things that we don’t even consider that Disney has just taken care of for us. You’ve probably noticed that there are no mosquitoes anywhere in Disney World. How are they able to accomplish this strange feat of nature?

Walt Disney World was built on a swamp. By any logical means, the entire Property should be swarming with mosquitoes. The answer comes from something you’ve probably never paid attention to. When you ride the ferry boats from the Ticket and Transportation Center to the Magic Kingdom, have you ever looked at the names of the ships? One of the boats is the General Joe Potter. But who is that, and how does he relate to mosquitoes?

Potter was an M.I.T. graduate and engineering expert. He also served as the governor of the Panama Canal Zone, an area of the world that is swarming with mosquitoes. Walt Disney and Potter met at the 1968 World’s Fair, and once Walt learned of his background hired him immediately.

Potter’s first order of business was to ensure that all the water in the Walt Disney World Resort was constantly moving. If you take a minute and look around, all the bodies of water have a fountain to ensure that water is never still. This takes away the mosquitoes’ breeding ground.

Then came the architecture. You already know how Disney could scale buildings to make them seem larger than they were. But the architecture also contributes to the lack of mosquitoes.

Christopher Lucas, author of Top Disney: 100 Top Ten Lists of the Best of Disney, wrote:

They made every building there curved, or designed in a way so there’d be no place for the water to catch and sit there. The architecture is really appealing to the eye, but it also serves a purpose: it makes it less conducive to mosquitoes.

The final method in Potter’s arsenal was something none of the Guests could even see, or in this case, smell. Disney sprays liquid garlic around the Property. The amount is so tiny that Guests cannot even notice it, but mosquitoes hate the smell. It is also environmentally friendly so that it doesn’t harm any other animals, bugs, or plant life on the Property.

Through the innovative work of Joe Potter, Disney has managed to remove all standing water on the property. Without standing water, there is nowhere for the mosquito larvae to hatch. Potter also created a natural mosquito repellent, using garlic spray for pest control purposes. Potter’s version of pest control has kept Disney World safe from mosquito bites and any mosquito-borne illnesses.

So, the next time you ride the General Joe Potter, remember that without him, you’d spend your entire vacation smacking away annoying bugs and scratching a mosquito bite.