With rainy season fast approaching, get ready for the mosquitoes. Hillsborough County is doing what it can to control the population by offering free mosquito-eating fish.

The county wants people to come to its Mosquito Control events to pick up these gambusia, or mosquito fish, and put them in old swimming pools, retention ponds, rain barrels or fountains.

"If you're dealing with a small rain barrel or fountain, four or five fish will cover it," explained Hillsborough County.

Mosquito Control Director Donnie Hayes said they are trying to be proactive, by getting rid of the mosquitoes before they become adults instead of spraying for mosquitoes later.

"When that truck drives through a neighborhood, it's only killing any adult mosquitoes that are flying at that point in time," explained Donnie Hayes. "The next morning, if new larvae are hatching into adults, it can actually be like we weren't even there."

County officials hope the mosquito fish will help reduce the population of mosquitoes that carry West Nile Virus, Zika and encephalitis.

"The mosquito fish is not the cure all for preventing Zika within Hillsborough County. But it's something that allows us to give public education and it can reduce some individual sources that wouldn't know about if the citizen didn't invite us into their backyard," Hayes said.

Hayes said it would also be helpful if residents check their yards for standing water once a week and get rid of it.

He said it is also important that they scrub the container the water was in, as mosquito eggs can lay dormant for months, and then once they are wet again, start their life cycle over again. 

According to Hayes, the county will hand out the mosquito fish for free on Saturday, June 2, and on several more occasions throughout the summer while supplies last. People have to prove they are residents of Hillsborough County.

Dates and locations of mosquito fish giveaways will be posted onto the department's website next week, according to Hayes.