The Abridged version:
- Area residents, especially those in the Pocket and surrounding neighborhoods, have noticed significant mosquito activity this year. They aren’t alone.
- With warmer fall temperatures, bug activity gets worse and mosquito populations are harder to control.
- There are also invasive mosquitoes in the region that are particularly adaptable and aggressive.
It’s not just you. The mosquitoes are bad this year.
“Definitely, there are quite a bit of mosquitoes right now, especially in the Pocket area of Sacramento,” said Steve Ramos, assistant manager at the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District.
As the days remain unseasonably warm, area residents have been noticing clouds of mosquitoes descending on their neighborhoods, biting day and night.
“So. Many. Mosquitoes,” said one poster in the Land Park & South Land Park Facebook group, which has about 6,600 members.
“I’ve been living in S Land Park area for over 5 years and have never been so bitten up before,” another said on a post that had nearly 70 comments.
Standing water, the bypass and wind
Ramos said the problem is especially bad in the Pocket area of Sacramento and surrounding neighborhoods in part because of its proximity to the Yolo Bypass.
“They’re a native species, Aedes melanimon, that typically come off, or are bred rather, in wetland areas. And being so close to the Yolo Bypass, we have a feeling that that’s exactly where they are breeding and moving into the Pocket area from,” he said.
With the prevailing wind often coming from the west, the mosquitoes find their way to inhabited areas of the region by traveling the path of least resistance.
“They almost act similar to kites,” Ramos said.
They can also be attracted to the lights of the city.
“All of our urban areas are like a giant bug attractant,” Ramos said.
The vector control district does what it can to control the population by working closely with landowners and operators of the bypass to time mosquito treatment with when the fields start filling up with water. But warm weather and stagnant water makes that job difficult.
“We were hoping that the climate would keep most of these mosquitoes down with what we expect is typically cooler weather in late October going into November. But we just haven’t gotten that,” Ramos said.
Unwanted, ankle-biting visitors
This year, non-native mosquitoes have also been adding to the misery.
Aedes aegypti came to the region a few years ago, breeding quickly and biting ankles.
“They prefer to bite people, whereas native prefer birds,” Ramos said. “These invasive mosquitoes are a real bad nuisance.”
The aggressive tropical mosquitoes also rely on breeding around humans, preferring things like saucers, plant bottoms, five-gallon buckets and wheelbarrows. They can even breed in something as small as an upturned bottle cap with a little bit of water in it.
That’s why Ramos recommends that area residents remain diligent about overturning any receptacle that can hold water before it rains.
“It’s amazing how much of a difference it can make,” he said.
West Nile Virus in the Sacramento region
With documented West Nile Virus activity in the Sacramento area, controlling the mosquito population is important. The disease is transmitted to humans, birds and other animals by mosquito bites. According to the vector control district’s ongoing surveillance report, 144 mosquito samples and 32 dead birds have tested positive for the virus so far this year in Sacramento and Yolo counties.
Most people fully recover if infected, but Ramos said those who have been exposed to a lot of mosquitos and exhibit flu-like symptoms should speak with a medical professional.
For now, though, Ramos is just hoping for cooler weather. Until then, the mosquitoes are likely to pester.
Daniel Hennessy is a reporter covering Yolo County at Abridged.