Summer's on the way and, as always, it'll bring mosquitoes with it.
To keep the pests in check, Macon-Bibb Public Works began spraying neighborhoods with pesticides this week.
We wanted to know if it works.
To verify, we talked to Marvin Land, the Macon-Bibb director of Public Works and Deo Oliver, the mosquito coordinator at the department.
We also used information from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to determine whether the spray can help people like Macon resident Dusty Lanford.
"I mean, walking out in the yard, you're going to get bit," said Lanford, "It's almost a given being in this side of town."
Lanford lives off Tucker Road and says the mosquitoes are at their worst in the summer.
Marvin Land's department is spraying pesticide with the goal of keeping them in check.
"We use Biomist 4+4 basically because it's targeted specifically for mosquitoes," he said.
Land says his employees divide the county into thirty areas and spray the pesticide four nights a week from April through October, weather permitting.
They aim to hit every area seven times as long as Mother Nature cooperates.
Over the course of the season, he says they use over 1,000 gallons of the pesticide.
According to a document posted to the federal Environmental Protection Agency's website, Biomist 4+4 contains Permethrin, a chemical another EPA web post says has a "high effectiveness" at killing mosquitoes.
We can verify that Bibb County's pesticide does kill mosquitoes and that's good news for people like Dusty Lanford.
"I would say so, I think it helps," said Lanford.