Another public health initiative - mosquito ditches

This photograph from 1945 shows a recently maintained Delaware Mosquito Control ditch dug to help control populations of disease-carrying mosquitoes around Gordons Pond specifically and Rehoboth Beach generally. The ditches were dug through a variety of initiatives including Civilian Conservation Corps projects in the 1930s and on into the 1940s and ‘50s when state agencies took over the ditching.

The goal was to have the ditches drain the marshes so there would be less breeding ground for the mosquitoes. Now mosquito control uses aerial spraying to control mosquito blooms.