From The Napa Valley Register
August 28, 2018
There’s nothing to like about the salt marsh mosquito.
They have a painful bite that can leave a welt. They like warm weather and daylight hours — exactly the same conditions that attract Napa humans to the out of doors.
This summer is a bad one for salt marsh mosquito bites. So many students in the Napa Valley Unified School District have been bitten since schools reopened two weeks ago that the district had to send out a letter this week explaining to parents what’s going on.
“It’s unusual for a kid to come home with mosquito bites after going to school. That’s made parents think, ‘Humm, what’s happening?’” said Elizabeth Emmett, NVUSD spokesperson.
Wes Maffei, manager of the Napa County Mosquito Abatement District, confirms that this is an exceptionally bad year for this summer biters.
Most years, the district is able to knock down their numbers with a larvicide applied to brackish and salty wetlands where they breed, Maffei said Tuesday.
Salt marsh mosquitoes are most commonly found south of Imola Avenue along the Napa River’s many marshes and wetlands, he said. They proliferate when high tides leave behind breeding pools of water.