Mosquitoes Growing in Your Water Barrel!

It was great to have abundant precipitation last year after 5 years of below average rainfall, except it looks like we are in for a dry spring, and it feels like a drought already. Residual standing water is still of concern because the risk of establishing reproduction sites for mosquitoes near homes; disease vectoring mosquitoes should not be given a home in your water barrel!

This dearth of rainwater, like the previous years of drought, usually spurs residents to save any available water so their gardens and landscaping can survive. All these various water-holding containers provide ample sites for female mosquitoes to lay their eggs, which will pass through complete metamorphosis and may produce hordes of blood hungry mosquitoes that have the potential to transmit deadly diseases, such as West Nile Virus (WNV). Try to keep containers tightly covered so mosquitoes do not have access.

The practice of ‘dumping and draining’ of any container holding water on a weekly basis will greatly reduce mosquitoes around your home and neighborhood. In addition, reporting to Alameda County Vector Control (510-567-6700) any standing water sites that persist for more than a week, or the presence of mosquitoes, can help our staff stay on top of mosquito breeding before it can get out of control.

Alameda County Vector Control has a comprehensive mosquito surveillance and control program that with the help of our community will be able to keep Albany safe from disease-vectoring mosquitoes. Twenty-seventeen was a very bad year for WNV in California, with 536 cases statewide, and 41 fatalities. In Alameda County, there was one human WNV illness, two dead birds tested positive for WNV, but no mosquito samples were positive for the virus. None of the WNV activity was in Albany.