Countywide

Backyard items such as buckets, old tires, trailered boats and wheelbarrows collected their share of rainwater during recent storms, and unless something was done about it they’ll be acting as nurseries for uncountable numbers of mosquitoes, say county mosquito control officials.

“Just one wheelbarrow half full of water can produce about 10,000 mosquitoes a week,” according to B. Fred Beams, assistant manager and educational coordinator of the Orange County Vector Control District.

He said there are 21 varieties of mosquitoes found in the county, not all of them just harmless biting pests.

“We’ve identified four varieties that carry malaria and another five that carry encephalitis,” Beams said.

County officials say it is important that citizens seek out the quiet pools and puddles that collected on their property and dump them out. If saved in covered containers, he added, rainwater is excellent for house plants.

“The complaints we’ve received after the rains this year have just gone through the roof,” Beams said. “We try to go out and help everyone, but it’s a strain on our manpower, because the district also must control mosquitoes in such breeding sources as roadside ditches, gutters, catch basins, flood control channels and the like.”

He said the district will provide home-owners with gambusia affinis, a species of fish that feeds on mosquito larvae--to put in fish ponds, rain barrels and other standing-water containers. For information, call (714) 971-2421.