Vistans Bite Back Against Bug Invasion

As in a suburban nightmare, a Vista neighborhood has mobilized itself against an invasion of billions of little bugs from a nearby field that have swarmed over their patios, driveways, lawns and gardens and in some cases gotten into homes.

The bug invasion is evoking references to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Birds” and a Stephen King horror novel.

The insects, identified by authorities as vegetation-eating false chinch bugs, pose no threat to humans or animals but are causing restless nights among some children and concern among gardeners about what will be left of their vegetation in a week or two.

Bernard Ellebrecht, who lives on Sequoia Crest in southwestern Vista, near Shadowridge and Melrose Drives, estimated that 50 homes in his neighborhood have been invaded by the pests and said not much seems to stop them.

“You can kill them with insecticide, but more keep on coming,” he said. “It’s like a river of insects. You spray and they die, but more just come. It’s like something you’d see in the movies.”

Added Edward Nickles, who lives on nearby Applewood Lane: “There are billions of them, and I’m not kidding. I sprayed a retaining wall with (insecticide) and killed them, and 15 minutes later more were climbing over it. I swept up dead ones, and it looked like a shovel of dirt.”

Most neighbors are spraying the perimeters of their property with insecticide or washing down their driveways and patios with water. But there are some reports of the bugs getting into the homes of residents who are gone during the day and word that at least one family has retreated to a nearby motel so their children can sleep at night without worrying about bedbugs--imagined or otherwise.

Source of the problem is a 55-acre, uncultivated, weedy field to the west of their neighborhood that is owned by the Carlsbad Municipal Water District for a water reservoir. Until about a year ago, the field was irrigated and planted in tomatoes by a farmer who leased the land, but the land has since gone to seed.

Ditch Was Dug

Neighbors first started complaining about the bugs about 10 days ago, unsure of the source. It was eventually traced to the water district property, and as soon as district officials realized the problem, they disked the property, dug a ditch along the perimeter and have used hand-spraying and a small, hand-held torch to kill the bugs as they enter the ditch. Neighbors say the work seems to be paying off--although countless numbers already inched their way to freedom before the barriers were set up.

David Kellum, the county entomologist, said outbreaks of the false chinch bug are not uncommon, especially from once-fertile fields that have gone unwatered and uncultivated for a year or more. The bugs abandon their host in search, literally, of greener pastures, like some endless wagon train as wide as the field itself.

“The field dried up and their food source was depleted, so they’re looking for new food,” Kellum said. In this case, their target was the Ellebrecht’s and Nickles’ neighborhood, which is about 1 1/2 years old.

“As more and more people infringe into rural neighborhoods, they’ll see this,” he said. “There have probably been outbreaks like this before, but nobody was around then to complain.”

Crawl Up the Body

The bugs are darkish brown and about an eighth of an inch long. “You wonder where their legs are, they’re so small, and how they move so fast,” Nickles said. “It’s almost comical to watch them. But then, if they get on your shoes, they start crawling up on you and get on your neck and arms.”

Kellum and Keith MacBarron, the county’s vector ecologist, suggest that residents simply abate the problem as best they can with streams of water. Many will simply drown.