NORTH HOLLYWOOD : District Begins Spraying for Black Flies

The battle against those blood-hungry black flies with a taste for San Fernando Valley golfers has started early this year.

“It was already getting out of hand,” said Mike Shaw, superintendent of the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control district, which last week began spraying to kill the larvae of the black fly, also known as the buffalo gnat.

The district had planned on the spraying program this summer to combat the flies that attacked Valley golfers in swarms last year, prompting many to don mosquito hoods. The black flies thrived last year because of the rain-swollen and cleaner Los Angeles River.

“It was worse last year because we didn’t do anything for about a month,” Shaw said.

This year, the district decided to go ahead with the spraying before getting funding approved from the Los Angeles City Council. The council approved a contract with the district Thursday.

In the spraying, the district injects a bacterium into the river by using hoses about every two-thirds of a mile along a 20-mile stretch of the river from Reseda through Griffith Park to the Santa Monica Freeway, Shaw said. The bacterium only attacks the larvae of black flies and mosquitoes, and does not harm other insects or birds, fish, animals and humans.

“We noticed that Tuesday of this week, it was already starting to drop off pretty good,” Shaw said of the number of black flies. The life cycle of the adults is only a few days, which is why swarms should disappear quickly after the larvae have been killed.

The bacterium will be injected into the river once a week until the flies are under control, and then be continued every 10 days or so through September. The contract with the city is worth about $50,000, Shaw said.

Residents who still encounter the black flies can report them to the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District, which has offices in South Gate and North Hollywood, by calling (800) 371-4402.