Pest of Times
Rats! Forgot to tell you about a place in Garden Grove that can rid you of just about anything that’s bugging you. Pest-free? Making the rounds at the Orange County Vector Control District can be a fascinating experience anyway. Then enjoy superb escargot at nearby LaFayette Restaurant.
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If you’re not sure what’s at the root of your problems, you can bring clues or an actual specimen to the drive-through window at the Vector Control District.
“Vector” may sound like a word out of “Star Trek” dialogue having to do with space-time grids, but in addition to its mathematical connotations, it refers to animals and insects such as rats, mosquitoes, ticks and flies that can transmit diseases to humans. Orange County residents pay for vector control services through a property tax assessment roughly equivalent to the cost of a can of insect spray per taxpayer.
You can drop in any time during business hours, and there are displays near the entry. If you want a tour of the facility, call education coordinator Jim Francisco for an appointment; he’ll put on a special slide show for groups of six or more. Kids love this stuff!
Greeting you at the entry to the district offices are cardboard cutouts of none other than--hold on to your repellent--Vectorman and his sidekick, Gamby the mosquito fish, who wears a flashy bow tie.
Overseeing lab and field operations is technical director and forensic entomologist James Webb; he mostly deals with very real problems but also gets calls (sometimes several a week) from people who think they’re covered with bugs but who are instead suffering from a medical disorder called delusions of parasitosis.
Did you know that the Africanized honey bee is smaller than its European counterpart? Or that kissing bugs actually cause a very painful bite and also are known as assassin bugs? Or that male mosquitoes, themselves victims of a bad rap, eat sugar, and that only females eat blood? One display shows 19 kinds of local mosquitoes; ask to see one under a microscope.
Other displays focus on ants, bees and wasps, including the tarantula hawk wasp, shown dramatically perched atop its prey. There’s an amazing array of flies, but you have to hand it to the Oriental latrine fly, with its spectacular green body and red eyeballs; it’s been in the New World for only 20 years, yet it has made its way from Brazil to Orange County in about 10. The scatologically inclined will appreciate a display including lizard and snail feces and ostrich droppings.
Many kids ask about the Jerusalem cricket, a potato bug that could star in an alien movie; its head looks like that of a bald baby. Drawers full of specimens, such as the striking gold scarab beetle, aid in identification.
The facility has been there since 1949, but a zippy new lab was added in 1995. Also on the property are fish ponds where the district raises fish that eat mosquitoes, hence Vectorman’s chum, Gamby.
If you’ve got a problem, the district has fliers or brochures for you, many of them translated into Spanish or Vietnamese. They cover Lyme disease and other plagues; one explains why it is impossible for mosquitoes to transmit HIV. There are fliers on pests ranging from brown dog ticks and black widow spiders to opossums--but what the heck do opossums do except make dogs bark?
Francisco sends kids home with such souvenirs as a rat magnet for the refrigerator or a game and activity book called “The Adventures of Vectorman.”
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Need a drink? Those who find such fascinating subject matter hard to swallow can check in at the LaFayette cocktail lounge.
On the other hand, a pest in one context can be a prandial delight in another. And hot or cold, revenge may be a dish that’s best served up, period.
That’s certainly the case at LaFayette’s elegant restaurant. Most gardeners take exception to snails, for instance. But with a little garlic and butter, the little gastropods can be exquisite; consider a half-dozen escargot bourguignon. (Webb was quick to debunk the urban myth that the slowpokes in our gardens are descendants of lucky escapees from a French chef’s kitchen--they are, in fact, a native species.) Or ribbits? Frog legs provencale. Rabbits? Try one au vin rouge.
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1) Orange County Vector Control District
13001 Garden Grove Blvd., (714) 971-2421
7 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday
2) LaFayette Restaurant
12532 Garden Grove Blvd., (714) 537-5011
11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday, 6-10:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 6-11 p.m. Saturday. Bar open 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday, 11:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 5-11 p.m. Saturday.
Parking: There is ample free parking in lots at both locations.
Buses: OCTA Bus No. 56 (Santa Ana-Garden Grove) runs along Garden Grove Boulevard with stops at Haster Street, Palm Street and Harbor Boulevard. Bus No. 43 (Fullerton-Newport Beach) runs along Harbor Boulevard with a stop at Garden Grove Boulevard.