From the Manteca Bulletin
August 8, 2019
As if an active population of adult mosquitoes that are testing positive for the West Nile Virus wasn’t enough, San Joaquin County mosquito abatement experts now have to worry about a new type of mosquito that can carry both the Zika virus and other diseases such as dengue fever that has surfaced in neighboring Stanislaus County.
Last month public health experts warned that a pair of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were discovered in traps on the east side of Modesto – indicating a possible breeding population – which long confirmed the fears of vector control experts that have been waiting for the mosquitoes to work their way north.
“Now it’s just only a matter of time before we detect them in San Joaquin County,” said San Joaquin Mosquito and Vector Control District spokesman Aaron Devencenzi. “We check the traps that we have in the South County near the border with Stanislaus County regularly, and just recently our guys have more traps in that area so that we can monitor what is happening.”
Unlike the mosquitoes that carry West Nile Virus – which are active predominantly at dawn and at dusk and are more densely packed in rural areas – the Aedes aegypti mosquito is active during the day and can commonly be found in urban and populated areas. If that wasn’t enough of an issue, Devencenzi said that eradication is extremely difficult because the mosquitoes are able to lay their eggs in only a capful of water, and once they are laid, they are viable even without water present for up to six months.