Glenbrooke News

by George Beitzel

If you’re curious and observant you may have noticed some extra activity at Glenbrooke.   This activity involves insects that live among us. Two agencies are doing monitoring and/or trapping here. They are the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District and the Sacramento County Agricultural Commissioner.

Lets start with the lowly mosquito. In the past, mosquitoes were generally associated with malaria. Today malaria is not a significant problem in the United States. But a mosquito borne disease called West Nile virus is. The local mosquito control district places traps under the pedestrian bridges near the acorn park for up to 24 hours. The traps are then removed and the captured mosquitoes checked for West Nile virus which has been found throughout California. Only female mosquitoes drink blood for protein to make eggs.

Other signs of West Nile are dead birds like crows, ravens and magpies As of this writing no cases of human or equine West Nile virus infection have been reported in our area this year. You may recall in June there was ariel spraying for mosquitoes just north of Elk Grove Blvd.

What can you do to help fight West Nile? Get rid of standing water around the home. Buckets, flowerpots, backyard ponds and still waterfall basins with a bit of water in the bottom can be good mosquito breeding grounds. It only takes a week for a mosquito egg to hatch and become an adult mosquito. Keep good screens on your windows. If you’re out after sunset, wear long sleeves and insect repellents like DEET. A factoid: It would take 1,200,000 mosquitoes, each sucking once, to drain the average human of blood.

The second insect program does not impact humans but can attack the foods we eat or export. The state funds a large program to insure the foods we produce and export meet international standards. If not then those fruits may not be exported, hurting the states 36 billion dollar agricultural economy. When returning from Reno you recall a " bug station " near Truckee. Here fruit is examined for insects and destroyed if from out of state. This is an exclusion program.

In our area we have detection programs for a host of insects such as oriental fruit fly, Gypsy moth, Japanese beetle, glassy winged sharpshooters and others. Employees of the county agricultural commissioner have been in Glenbrooke putting insect traps in some of our trees. The traps are left for a few days up to a week then removed and examined for specific insects.

A grape vine moth was trapped here earlier in the year. If the pest insect population is found to be increasing then control measures are taken. Grape vineyards south of us are reporting infections of this pest. You may say, so what? Think back to economics 1A and supply and demand theory. Less supply = more demand = higher prices.

The county is appreciative of our allowing them to trap insects in our trees. Hope that helps explain what's bugging our community.