Fee Should Bite Where Pests Do, Officials Say

Rats, ticks, mosquitoes and perhaps killer bees are more likely to head for the high-rent coastal regions than the arid deserts of San Diego County, health officials said in proposing a change in the fee structure paid by property owners to reflect the problem areas.

Although the fees are modest now, the county faces at least two major threats that could escalate the control program costs--killer bees approaching from Mexico and ticks carrying Lyme disease approaching from the north.

Moise Mizrahi, chief of the county’s vector surveillance and control division, has proposed a sliding scale of fees for property owners that will reflect the amount of service they receive. Coastal properties will pay more, desert landowners will pay less. A public hearing will be scheduled later this month on the proposal.

The vector-control program, which began in July, 1989, now costs residential property owners $3.58 a year for each lot they own. Multiple-unit apartment buildings and commercial developments are assessed at a higher rate.

Now, Mizrahi said, funding for the 2-year-old disease prevention program should be restructured to reflect the areas receiving the services.

“It’s true that most of our efforts are being directed toward the coastal communities,” Mizrahi said, saying that rats and insects are as partial to the balmy coastal climate as the human population.

Malaria, carried by mosquitoes, has threatened coastal residents, especially around brackish-water lagoons and river valleys. Rats, which carry a number of diseases that threaten humans, are found mostly in the lusher vegetation and waterfront areas of coastal communities.

Mizrahi proposes to ask the county Board of Supervisors later this month to change the annual assessments. Coastal areas--from Imperial Beach to Oceanside--would pay the highest fee rate of $4.38 per property. Inland suburban communities--El Cajon, La Mesa, San Marcos, Poway, Fallbrook, Vista, Escondido, Ramona, Santee, Spring Valley--would pay a lesser fee of $2.46, and the backcountry and desert areas would pay the least, $1.30. Property in the city of San Diego, which spans both the coastal and inland suburban zones would be charged at the higher $4.38 fee.

The fee schedule reflects the two-year experience of the program, Mizrahi said. Calls for help in combatting rats and mosquito infestations are much more frequent along the coastal area than in the drier inland areas, he said. Few calls for vector control come from the desert residents, he added.

Two new health threats that may increase vector-control costs and change the balance of service are approaching the county, Mizrahi said.

Lyme disease, a tick-carried sickness that attacks humans, has been found in a tick in southern Orange County, near Camp Pendleton. Although no diseased ticks have been found in San Diego County, vector-control crews have identified ticks capable of carrying the disease over widespread areas of the county, including Palomar Mountain, Fallbrook, Mt. Laguna, Julian, Morena, Otay Lakes reservoir and University City in the Tecolote Canyon area.

Africanized honey bees, also known as killer bees, are pushing northward through Mexico and are now in the Puerto Vallarta area, about 1,000 miles south of the U.S.-Mexican border. The bees, which attack humans and other enemies in aggressive swarms when they are disturbed, are considered a threat to crops and residents.

Mizrahi said state money for defense against the killer bee invasion “still remains up in the air,” thus the county does not know how much of the expense it will have to shoulder.

Oceanside City Manager John Mamaux criticized the county as “unfair” in its vector-control fee schedule.

Oceanside and other coastal cities extend far inland, far beyond the coastal zone, Mamaux pointed out, and should not be charged at the highest rate for its inland areas.