Growth in housing, wetlands, trigger new mosquito menace

Tuesday, May 2, 2000 | 10:35 a.m.

If you were raised in the Truckee Meadows, they're not the same ones you grew up with.

As pastures across the valleys have been turned into housing in the past 20 years, a new mosquito has taken over. It lives year round in the shallow, still waters of the enhanced wetlands that have accompanied those new developments.

This new Culex genus or class of species is much more prone to carrying deadly viruses such as encephalitis.

It has evolved into the dominant genus, taking over for the Aedes that once thrived in the pastures which were wet only part of the summer, said Monsen, coordinator for the Washoe District Health Departments vector-control program.

The Aedes mosquito typically was a daytime nuisance and lived only about a month.

The Culex comes out at night to eat and the little buggers can live up to a year and a half, Monsen said. That means year-round mosquitoes.

Enhanced wetlands, such as those at Rosewood Lakes Golf Course, are not only an ideal breeding ground for the Culex mosquitoes in laying their eggs, Monsen said. They are also a great home-away-from-home for migrating birds.

If those birds are carrying diseases from some other part of the continent, the mosquitoes can pick up that virus and transmit it to humans.

The Washoe health department keeps chicken coops near wetlands throughout the region. Blood is drawn from virus-free certified chickens every two weeks and checked in the lab to detect for virus antibodies.

With chickens stationed at Lemmon Valley, Spanish Springs, Hidden Valley and Rosewood Lakes, Double Diamond Ranch and Washoe Valley, Monsen said the county has a good handle in protecting the public's health.

His biggest issue is the county will be called on to do more and more mosquito abatement with limited resources.

"We are being asked to provide service where six to eight months ago there wasn't even a house," Monsen said.