Blog by Brenda Altman, UC Master Gardener-Solano
Spring showers bring spring flowers, puddles, cloudy days, and mosquitoes. Rainwater collects everywhere. You can find it in hollows of trees, old tires, buckets, and pans left outside. Many of these places are ideal places for mosquitoes to breed. Mosquito eggs can survive many months outside standing water. The key word is standing water. The other factor is temperatures at 70 – 80 degrees are ideal for mosquito breeding. Mosquitoes in addition to giving irritating bites can also transmit blood-borne diseases. How do you know if the mosquito that bites you is a vector? Unless you catch it, you don't know until you develop symptoms.
There are several mosquito-borne diseases around the world, they include: Zika, Elephantiasis, Dengue, Malaria Yellow Fever, and West Nile. West Nile has over 2,200 cases in the US alone. West Nile has been detected in all counties of California (westnile.ca.gov). The virus is transferred from birds to mosquitoes to humans. Symptoms range to fever to brain meningitis. CDC reports that there are no vaccines for West Nile, the best defense is to not get bitten.
Wear protective clothing in areas where mosquitoes are present, and long-sleeved shirts and pants with mosquito repellant are a must. Remember, the repellant will wear off, so reapply when outside for a prolonged period. Reduce breeding areas around your house by tipping over and draining any open buckets, pools, drains, low spots, and tree hollows are all areas where water can collect and become breeding spots for mosquitoes. Mosquitoes don't need a lot of water to breed. Even low-lying areas that only flood infrequently are problematic. Standing water areas such as fishponds and bird baths can be treated biologically with larvicides such as Bt, Bacillus thuringiensis, which are found in mosquito dunks. Their active ingredient is good for 30 days, so keep an adequate supply if you have areas that flood throughout the year. Keep in mind that at 60 degrees F and lower mosquitoes are not active.
Climate change is real and happening fast. Droughts and wildfires are examples of changing climate. Warmer temperatures are an invitation for mosquitoes to breed. New species of mosquitoes may find ideal conditions in climate-changed California.
As gardeners, we can fight climate change by planting trees that can sequester carbon dioxide within their roots, and we can use less fossil fuels. We must also deal with climate change by minimizing mosquito-borne diseases. Drain the swamp, dunk mosquitoes.
