Trump orders federal tick and mosquito campaign in Washington, D.C.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on September 29 directing federal agencies to tackle invasive ticks and mosquitoes on land under federal jurisdiction in Washington, D.C., according to the White House. Its fact sheet sets targets of reducing invasive mosquito populations by 90% and tick populations by 50% by 2028. Those figures are goals for a campaign the agencies must develop, not reductions already achieved.

The White House describes the planned campaign as non-chemical and technology-enabled. It calls for agencies to address tick and mosquito breeding grounds on federally controlled land across the District and to consider commercial capabilities or cooperative agreements. The fact sheet does not name the technologies that would be used, give a campaign start date or explain how the population targets would be measured.

Which federal agencies will run the D.C. campaign?

The order assigns roles in developing and carrying out the campaign to the secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture departments, the administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency and General Services Administration, and the secretary of Health and Human Services, according to the White House. The stated scope is federal jurisdiction in Washington, D.C.; the fact sheet does not describe a completed nationwide program.

The White House says the EPA administrator, working with Agriculture and HHS, must submit a regulatory framework for the planned development and release of advanced tick- and mosquito-control technologies. That assignment points to further decisions before any such release. The fact sheet does not provide a budget, identify a technology for deployment or say when the agencies will submit the framework.

Why mosquito breeding sites matter in Washington

The researchers found standing water and juvenile mosquitoes in the structures and concluded that below-ground urban spaces can help sustain mosquito populations. They recommended including surveys of such spaces in urban mosquito-management programs. Their findings establish a local habitat concern; they do not show that the administration’s proposed methods will reach the White House’s 2028 targets.

DC Health says it has monitored mosquitoes in the District since 2000, including testing captured mosquitoes for West Nile virus. The agency says it applies larvicide to standing-water sources that cannot be eliminated and does not use adulticide itself. The new federal directive therefore concerns an area where mosquito surveillance and control already exist, although the White House has described its own campaign in non-chemical terms.

What can non-chemical mosquito control achieve?

One separate effort reported by The Washington Post shows the kind of approach being tried in the region, without establishing what federal agencies will choose. The Post reported that a Maryland pest-control company released 600,000 Wolbachia-infected male mosquitoes across 25 properties in Maryland and D.C. during summer 2026. It described the releases as a private service, separate from Trump’s order.

The Post also reported that Yale public-health researcher Chantal Vogels saw promise in the Wolbachia approach but said continued releases were needed because mosquito populations could recover if they stopped. The newspaper cited a Sacramento-area pilot in which the target mosquito population fell by about 40% in a 2025 pilot area, according to a local mosquito-control district spokesperson. Neither example measures the proposed federal campaign’s effectiveness.

What else does the order direct?

Beyond the D.C. population targets, the White House says the order directs HHS to build on the Lyme Disease Moonshot through prize competitions and research and development on preventing and treating tick- and mosquito-borne diseases. Agriculture, Interior, HHS and EPA are also assigned research or prize initiatives for non-chemical disease-control methods. These are directions to pursue work, rather than reported results from that work.

The fact sheet says Agriculture and HHS must explore labeling options for food and drug products containing significant amounts of alpha-galactose, similar to other allergy warnings. It describes the D.C. effort as a possible model for later use elsewhere in the country. It does not say that national expansion has begun, and it provides no evidence yet that the campaign will reduce disease cases or meet its population targets.