Mosquitoes that can transmit yellow fever, Zika have spread to Turlock and Ceres
Mosquitoes that can carry yellow fever, Zika and a few other diseases have turned up in Turlock and Ceres, officials said Tuesday.
The finds came about a year after this species, Aedes aegypti, made its first known appearance in Stanislaus County. That was in Modesto and Newman. No diseases have been reported in California.
The latest detections were by the Turlock Mosquito Abatement District. It takes in the part of the county south of the Tuolumne River, along with the West Side.
These mosquitoes are especially troublesome because they fly during the day and can reproduce in a very small volume of standing water, General Manager Dave Heft said by phone.
Other mosquitoes tend to fly between dusk and dawn, including those that carry West Nile virus.
Monitoring for pest goes on
The exact locations of the Turlock and Ceres mosquitoes were not disclosed. Heft said they were found via the district’s monitoring traps.
The staff is working to determine the extent of Aedes aegypti through further trapping and property inspections. Residents can report them at 209‐634‐1234 or www.turlockmosquito.org.
If needed, the district uses low-strength chemicals or other means to control the mosquitoes.
They have been found in all eight counties in the San Joaquin Valley, along with the Sacramento area and Southern California, according to the state Department of Public Health.
Aedes aegypti originated in Africa and has since spread to much of the Western Hemisphere.
It is commonly called the yellow fever mosquito but also can transmit diseases such as dengue, chikungunya and Zika.
How to keep it at bay
The district offered advice on controlling the pest:
- Do not leave water standing for more than five days in flower pots, pet bowls, buckets, bird baths and other outdoor containers.
- Scrub pet bowls weekly and empty them into the trash.
- Fill the saucers under flower pots with sand so water does not collect.
- Use repellents containing DEET, Picaridin, IR3535 or Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus.
- Maintain screens on doors and windows. Aedes aegypti can live and breed inside homes.
“This is a very challenging mosquito to control,” Heft said in a news release. “It prefers to live in hard‐to‐reach suburban environments and bite people. They require very little water to complete their life cycle, and their eggs are capable of surviving for months on the insides of containers before they come in contact with water.”
The rest of Stanislaus County is served by the East Side Mosquito Abatement District. Report finds at 209-522-4098 or www.eastsidemosquito.com.
This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 5:20 PM.
