At the Washoe County Board of County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, Northern Nevada Public Health (NNPH) presented an update on mosquito abatement funding.

Due to constraints, NNPH said it's suspending large area mosquito treatments for the 2026 season, which runs from May to September.

"It's always a challenge to fund public health in many points," said Dr. Chad Kingsley, District Health Officer for NNPH.

Dr. Kingsley said NNPH's funding mostly comes from grants and a tax transfer from Reno, Sparks, and Washoe County. He said all three jurisdictions are facing budget cuts, plus some annual grants have been cut in half.

He said mosquito services are on the chopping block since there are bigger concerns in Washoe County.

"It is definitely a nuisance as a disease-carrying agent," said Dr. Kingsley. "It's significantly less than the other things within our community."

NNPH said it's seen one case of a vector-borne illness that originated in Washoe County since 2020 - a case of West Nile Virus in 2022. Other mosquito-related illnesses have been reported, but they originated from outside the county.

While we don't know which treatments will be put on hold this year, we know what cuts looked like in the past.

In 2025, NNPH saved about a third of its budget by keeping its helicopter on the ground and skipping out on larvicide.

"That ranged to over $200,000, so we did not fly it [last] year," Dr. Kingsley said. "We collected data, continued our educational services, as well as trapping of mosquitoes."

Given the hangups with grants and tax transfers, NNPH will look into different ways to fund the fight against mosquitoes. Dr. Kingsley said one option is to look into other grants, but choices are limited.

"There is also the option of a ballot measure or working with our state partners to see if there's any legislative point that we could do," he said. "And then there's always seeking out community, if there's private funding or anything that could be able to help provide for."