BY NICK DIAMANTIDES
Staff Writer
At this very moment, hundreds of thousands of tiny mosquito larvae are swimming in pools of stagnant water throughout the Long Beach/Signal Hill area. The little critters are waiting to sprout wings so they can fly to the bodies of animals and humans where they can suck the blood they need for sustenance. While most people consider that fact to be a minor inconvenience, in recent years mosquitoes have posed a serious health threat to the people of this region. Many of the little insects are now carriers of the West Nile Virus, which is sometimes deadly to humans.
In the Long Beach/Signal Hill area, two governmental agencies are working to eliminate as many mosquito larvae as possible before they sprout their wings. One of those agencies is the Long Beach Health Department’s Vector Control program, which works in the western portion of Long Beach. The other is the Los Angeles County Vector Control District, which works in east Long Beach and Signal Hill. Last week, during the Signal Hill City Council meeting, Hazel Wallace, the city’s representative on the County Vector Control board of directors, updated the council on the ongoing battle to control mosquitoes in this region.
Wallace said that officials do not yet know whether mosquitoes will increase this year. “The Vector Control District monitors the populations of mosquitoes,” she said. “They do know many of the areas and specific spots the mosquitoes breed in. So they are monitoring these, taking water samples and looking for larvae every week or so.”
She explained that when stagnant water containing mosquito larvae is discovered, Vector District employees treat the water with chemicals that kill the larvae but don’t harm other living things. “They are not harmful to the environment like DDT was,” she said. “The chemicals are plant-based and pyrethrum-based and interfere with the growth mechanism of the mosquito larvae. Those are chemicals that are non-toxic to fish, other animals or humans.”
She noted that Vector Control also uses mosquito fish, which are bred to eat the larvae. The fish, which resemble guppies, are available for free to people who have backyard ponds or other water features where mosquitoes can breed. They can call the Greater Los Angles County Vector Control District at (562) 944-9656 and then go to the facility in Santa Fe Springs to pick up a small quantity of mosquito fish.
“You can also call that number if you notice mosquitoes breeding in your yard or any other area, and they will send someone to investigate and eliminate them,” Wallace said. “There is no charge for the service because, if you are a homeowner or the owner of commercial property, you are charged a small fee on your property tax to support Vector Control.” She noted that homeowners pay about $7.25 per year to support mosquito eradication in the county, but that fee could rise slightly.
“I am on the Vector Control Budget Committee, and this year I don’t think we will be getting money from the state,” Wallace said. She explained that the Vector Control Board has the authority to increase the fee up to about $20 per year. Any additional increases would have to be approved by the voters.
The County Vector Control District deals only with mosquitoes throughout the county and black flies along the Los Angeles River. The district also previously eradicated African bee colonies but stopped doing so about five years ago. “We wanted to put more of our resources into controlling the spread of mosquitoes that carry the West Nile Virus,” Wallace explained. “There were not that many bee infestations, and citizens could deal with those private terminators, and the cost to the homeowner is not that great.”
Wallace noted that West Nile Virus was first discovered in the United States about 10 years ago, and in California about five years ago. The virus can be fatal to humans, horses and birds.
“Last year (in Los Angeles County) we saw only 50 percent of the cases from the high year of 2005, which means that Vector Control, public awareness and lots of other measures worked,” she said. “But in 2008, we had more cases of severe neurological disease than the usual febrile, mild disease we associate with West Nile Virus.”
She explained that last year there was a rise of encephalitis, the neurological disease caused by West Nile Virus. As a result, more people needed to be hospitalized. She noted that at this point healthcare workers do not know if the increase is due to doctors getting better at diagnosing the disease or if the strain of virus has become more virulent than it used to be.
Wallace stressed that local residents must get involved in helping the Vector Control District eliminate mosquito larvae. She said that no one knows how many neglected swimming pools exist in the region due to property foreclosures, but the pools are nothing but large breeding grounds for mosquitoes, which only have an approximate seven-day larvae stage. “We need to have people calling to tell us of neglected swimming pools and any other place where rain water or irrigation water collects and becomes stagnant,” she said. Those places include clogged rain gutters, storm drains, catch basins, loading docks, ponds, old tires, oil field well cellars, outdoor flowerpots, and any geological feature or manmade items that trap water for a few days.
The Greater Los Angles County Vector Control District can be reached at (562) 944-9656 or http://glacvcd.org
