Complaints Kill Mosquito-Release Plan

A swarm of complaints has forced a regional mosquito control district to reluctantly abandon plans to experimentally release up to 30,000 of the pesky insects in a densely populated area of Southeast Los Angeles County.

The district canceled the research project at the request of Norwalk city officials, who received dozens of protests after endorsing the district’s plans to free mosquitoes early next month in a Norwalk neighborhood and a park in nearby Downey.

“There was a measure of serious concern on the part of a lot of the people calling,” Norwalk City Manager Richard R. Powers said. “One lady . . . thought it was morally wrong for a public entity in the business of curtailing mosquitoes to release them.”

Others branded the project medically unsafe and illogical.

“People were just concerned about letting more mosquitoes out into the community,” Councilman Mike Mendez said.

While saying he remained convinced that the project was a sound and responsible one, the assistant manager of the Southeast Mosquito Abatement District said Wednesday that district officials had no choice but to call the project off in light of the city’s position. He added that the district will not release mosquitoes anywhere else.

“My personal feelings are that the district has a bigger responsibility to the larger community” to conduct an important research project, said district assistant manager Jack Hazelrigg, adding that he was “disappointed and frustrated” that the release had been canceled.

Working with researchers at UC Berkeley, the district intended to free 20,000 to 30,000 adult mosquitoes dusted with a fluorescent powder and then attempt to trap them. By gathering information on where and how far the mosquitoes traveled, the researchers hoped to learn more about the behavior of the insects in a suburban/urban environment--and more about how to control them.

The research team conducted the same experiment in the Orange County community of Rossmoor last month virtually without complaint. But that release was not highly publicized.

The researchers are engaged in a three-year study of how viral encephalitis is transmitted in the Los Angeles Basin, which has experienced several outbreaks of a potentially fatal, mosquito-borne strain of the disease in recent years.