County sprays for mosquitoes with recent larvacide dumps

From The Coast News Group
June 14, 2018

REGION — Last month, San Diego County began its annual larvicide dumps throughout the county to combat mosquitoes and diseases.

Chris Conlan, supervising vector ecologist, said the county is hopeful this year will show a decrease in West Nile, Zika, Dengue fever and other diseases spread by mosquitoes.

The county also conducts aerial drops from helicopters at 48 waterway sites throughout the county. The total 1,004 acres and will be done monthly for the rest of summer including on June 27.

The largest site is the Buena Vista Lagoon on the Carlsbad-Oceanside border, which covers 120 acres, followed by the San Elijo Lagoon (west and east) on the Encinitas-Solana Beach border spanning 80 acres.

“Those sites are chosen because they can’t be easily done any other way,” Conlan said. “There’s not good access or just too massive … whereas a helicopter can just cruise over and get done in a few minutes in what would take us an awfully long time.”

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