MCHD adding an online portal to access Vector Services
February 9, 2022
MCHD adding an online portal to access Vector Services
MOBILE, Ala. — In an effort to better serve our community, the Mobile County Health Department’s (MCHD) Prevention & Wellness directorate is implementing a new online portal to help the public request assistance from Vector Services and receive feedback on their request.
“We’re very excited to elevate our community service by launching the new online portal for requests for mosquito and rodent abatement,” said Derrick Scott, who oversees the Environmental Health programs. “The new system facilitates two-way communications with the public and will streamline efforts to protect the community from vector-borne infectious diseases.”
Vector Services performs both Mosquito and Rodent Control services for the citizens of Mobile County. A vector is any insect, rodent, or animal capable of harboring or transmitting diseases to humans.
The new online portal will allow complaints from the community to be submitted and tracked online. A case number is assigned, which allows the resident to check the status on a public dashboard. At the same time, an email is sent to the MCHD clerical staff. The request is reviewed and assigned to an inspector after being placed on an internal status dashboard.
All of the vital information on the request is available on this internal dashboard, such as location, critical details, and whether a dog(s) is at the site. Once the inspector closes the case, an email is sent to the complainant.
Should citizens not have access to the internet, they can still call the department to report the information. The numbers are 251-690-8124 for Mosquito Control and 251-690-8819 for Rodent Control. Our staff would then type this information into the new application to begin the process.
The Mosquito Control division has many missions. These include treating breeding sites to control mosquitoes during the larvae stage, running night-time spray trucks across 50 routes in Mobile County, deploying traps to determine which mosquito species are present, employing an airplane to treat rural areas not easily accessible by trucks, and maintaining a sentinel chicken program that tracks mosquitoes that are actively transmitting pathogens.
The Rodent Control division can assist in controlling rodents on a resident’s property. Vector Services does not control rodents inside structures, but they do treat rodents on the exterior of structures.
To learn more about the department, you may visit https://mchd.org/vector-control. From there, you can find a link and a QR code to access the new online portal for ordering services.
