Sitting water from winter storms provides breeding ground for mosquitoes

After a record breaking wet winter, the landscape around Monterey County looks different, greener and wetter.

“At this point of time, now that the rain has stopped now we’re a little concerned with people’s backyard. Now is a perfect time to look at buckets, containers, tires, and keep an eye on dog dishes,” said Public Education Coordinator Vincent Sanchez.

Mosquitoes flock to water, which is why the flood waters we saw over winter gave mosquitoes more options.

“All the rain that comes in creates more sources for us to find and track down. And then in the summer time what brings a lot of mosquitoes is the temperature,” said Mosquito Technician Phillip Maschmeyer.

“There are four stages of Larvae, and at that point the very last state which is the pupae stage and from there the adult will emerge,” said Sanchez.

The Monterey County Mosquito Abatement District not only tries to keep the population down, but uses CO2 traps to detect viruses.

“A lot of our activities are driven by the public. They call us up, we set a trap and then we send those traps out for testing,” said Monterey County Mosquito Abatement District Manager Ken Klemme.

The State tests for West Nile and Zika.

“They are just a car ride away. They’re in counties like Fresno and Madera, so it is a possibility. We are actively looking for the Zika mosquito, but to date there are no mosquitoes that can carry the disease here,” said Klemme.

There are natural ways to control the population, one being mosquito fish.

“One of the services we offer is free mosquito fish. So if someone has a pool or pond or horse trough they no longer want to maintain, then the fish will do it for them. Just call us up and we will put the fish in the water to take care of them, pesticide free,” said Klemme.