SOUTHWEST FLORIDA - More people are complaining about abandoned pools. Not just to Code Enforcement, but Mosquito Control.

If you see a foreclosure sign on your street, you may also have an abandoned swimming pool.

"Apparently they're getting pretty bad," said Florida Bureau of Pest Control Spokesman Mike Page.

But a fish is helping attack the problem. The Gambusia is a two-inch fish that eats mosquitoes. It is available for people to buy, usually for retention ponds.

"They do a pretty a decent job with clearing up the larvae that, of course, are breeding adult mosquitoes," said Page.

Lee County Mosquito Control District is swamped with pool calls. It uses a more convenient 81-cent pouch of organic material that kills larvae for months. It lasts for several months and is made specifically for pool use.

But not every abandoned pool is a cesspool. In two months, Mosquito Control checked out 100 sites and only one was breeding.

"A pool in Florida can turn green within a couple days of not being treated, they see that and assume mosquitoes are there and generally mosquitoes are much more selective than that," said Shelly Redovan of Lee County Mosquito Control District.

Pools are a smaller problem compared to a ditch with standing water that can successfully breed mosquitoes.

"They actually can smell what is going to be a better site for them than just plain water would be," said Redovan.

There are more mosquitoes this season, but you can blame it on the rain not real estate.

"The majority of our mosquitoes are still coming from that salt marsh area and not from next door," said Redovan.

If a pool is still screened in mosquitoes have no way of breeding in it.

Charlotte County is the only local district that uses the Gambusia fish, but only in retention ponds.