Cleveland native launches Delta Foggers to fight mosquitoes and pests

Mosquitoes can turn a backyard cookout, a wedding tent or a child’s play area into a place people leave early. In Cleveland and across the Delta, Trent LaMastus built Delta Foggers LLC around that everyday problem, using targeted treatments to make patios, yards and outdoor venues usable again.

LaMastus grew up in Cleveland, spent summers working in the field with his father and carried that farm background through Cleveland High School, Mississippi Delta Community College and Mississippi State University, where he earned a degree in agronomy with a concentration in integrated pest management. He launched Delta Foggers in September 2025 while still working full time in agricultural sales with Titan Ag.

The business is rooted in a property-by-property approach rather than a broad, one-size-fits-all spray. LaMastus uses a Stihl backpack fogger to focus on shaded areas, shrubs, sheds, carports, bushes and other places where mosquitoes hide. He also treats flies, wasps, dirt daubers and carpenter bees. Treatments typically last about two to three weeks, depending on shade, vegetation, standing water and weather.

That local need is easy to see in Cleveland, where used tires, containers, gutters and other standing-water sites can become breeding grounds. Mississippi State University Extension says the most effective mosquito control program combines source reduction, larviciding where standing water cannot be eliminated and adulticiding only when necessary. The Mississippi State Department of Health says Mississippi has at least 50 mosquito species, though only three or four are major disease transmitters to humans. The mosquito-borne viruses found in the state include West Nile, St. Louis encephalitis, LaCrosse encephalitis and Eastern equine encephalitis.

Delta Foggers works on residential and commercial properties and has already handled jobs in Cleveland and surrounding Delta towns, as well as in Charleston and Clarksdale. LaMastus has also been called for weddings, engagement parties, hunting camps, cabins, sporting events and other gatherings where mosquitoes can quickly drive people indoors.

State rules help explain why the work is tightly regulated. The Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce says anyone who receives fees for pest-control work must be licensed, and its license categories include Mosquito and Biting Fly Control. The department also says pesticide applicators must carry bond and or insurance. LaMastus is licensed through the Mississippi Bureau of Plant Industry, which allows him to work statewide.

The problem he is addressing is not new. Mississippi State University’s mosquito history notes a 1952-53 study of rice-field mosquito control in Bolivar County, and the university says the state has never had a systematic statewide mosquito study. In the Mississippi Delta, where wet weather and standing water can create breeding habitat fast, Delta Foggers has stepped into a long-running fight with a local answer.