Local News in Brief : Countywide : Pest Agency Asks for Aid in Mosquito Control

The record-breaking high temperatures of recent days have boosted the production of mosquitoes, and residents are asked by the Orange County Vector Control District to help curb the problem.

Even though the winter season was relatively dry, rainwater has created new habitat for mosquitoes in and around yards, said B. Fred Beams, assistant manager of the district.

Combined with the heat and collected in such back-yard containers as old buckets, tires, wheelbarrows or trailered boats, the water can provide breeding places for millions of mosquitoes. That water should be removed.

Beam said there are 21 varieties of mosquitoes in Orange County, several of which can carry the viral disease encephalitis.

The Vector Control District keeps what are called sentinel flocks of chickens at strategic locations and checks their blood for the virus as a means of detecting the disease at the earliest possible moment.

The district also sprays for mosquitoes in ditches, gutters and other water-collecting spots, and will provide residents with larvae-eating fish for their ponds.