Protecting yourself from mosquitoes and ticks
standing water – from swimming pools to flooded rice fields.
He said they have been sending samples to the Center for Vectorborne Diseases at the University of California, Davis and there have been no cases of West Nile virus, dengue fever or Zika virus in Yuba and Sutter counties. He said he credits a multipronged approach to pest management.
“Mosquitofish are an important component of integrated pest management at the district. They are a major part of the biological control methods we incorporate for mosquito control,” he said. “It’s one of the tools that allows us to supplement our other pest control measures. For instance, when we treat an ornamental pond with mosquitofish, we do it one time, whereas, with other pest control methods, we need to go back multiple times during the season.”
Rice fields are on the larger end of the spectrum of bodies of water that get treated with mosquitofish and vector control personnel started doing that last week.
“We put about 200 fish per acre in a rice field and will place between 1.5 and 2 million fish this season – we concentrate on treating rice fields close to urban areas,” Kimball said. “We also put them in neglected swimming pools, water troughs, ponds, natural waterways and ornamental ponds.”
He said mosquitofish are livebearers, meaning they don’t lay eggs, and each fish can have 30-50 young, and many broods per season.
“We’re one of the largest in the state of production of mosquitofish,” he said. “There have been some studies in observational tanks where an adult mosquitofish can eat up to 300 larvae per day – they’re voracious eaters.”
Being part of the food chain, Kimball said, mosquitofish go with the flow when in rice fields and other bodies of water.
“In a rice field when the water drains, they’ll go out of the drain and become food for bass and sunfish,” he said. “Those who don’t make it out, become food for birds – egrets and herons.”
He said the Sutter-yuba Mosquito Vector Control District hired a fisheries biologist to implement the mosquitofish program in 1972.
“We don’t want people to get the $1,000 fine, but the city has a zero-tolerance policy that it will uphold,” Gale said. “That’s why we are trying to educate people and are using the phrase ‘Safe and sane or feel the pain.’”
Legal fireworks in the state of California are considered “safe and sane” – hence the city’s phrase – and are basically anything that stays on the ground and doesn’t emit a projectile or large explosion.
The Yuba City Police Department received 231 calls for service due to illegal fireworks from July 1 through 4 last year. That number was up by about 80 calls compared to the previous year, according to Police Chief Rob Landon in an Aug. 17, 2017, Appeal-democrat article.
Gale said both fire and police personnel will be out in force this year – before, during and after the holiday – to respond to the illegal use of fireworks. In fact, the city has already started receiving reports of illegal fireworks, he said.
Sutter County officials adopted a similar ordinance on June 12, allowing for local prosecution and $1,000 administrative fines for anyone found to be using, possessing, storing, selling or displaying dangerous fireworks this holiday.
“(The illegal firework ordinance) is new to county residents this year. It’s a zero-tolerance ordinance, meaning if you are seen doing it you will be cited,” said Sutter County Fire Chief John Shalowitz.
Because of low staffing levels in the county, fire services will not be able to patrol for illegal fireworks. That means Shalowitz and company will be working off of complaints from the public.
On a night when the department tends to see an increase in all calls for service, he said his department is expecting to have its hands
full.
“It all depends on the year, but we have seen structure fires started because of aerial fireworks landing on the roof. We’ve seen fence fires, grass fires, you name it,” Shalowitz said. “We definitely see an increase that night because of the use of illegal fireworks, which is why we are trying to address that with the new firework ordinance.”
Marysville Fire Chief Dale Vogelsang said his department also plans on stepping up enforcement over the holiday. He said both uniformed
and non-uniformed personnel will be patrolling, and anyone found to be breaking the law will be cited by the police department and have their fireworks confiscated.
“As long as the fireworks have been approved by the state fire marshal, they will be marked as ‘safe and sane’ on the box they come in,” Vogelsang said.
Legal firework sales begin on Thursday after noon and will continue through July 4. Safe and sane fireworks can be set off legally from Thursday through midnight July 4.