{"id":875217,"date":"2026-10-08T14:30:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T14:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/875217\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T14:30:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T14:30:24","slug":"socal-heat-wave-accelerates-mosquito-breeding-prompts-emergency-spraying-amid-west-nile-virus-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/875217\/","title":{"rendered":"SoCal heat wave accelerates mosquito breeding, prompts emergency spraying amid West Nile virus concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">MONTEREY PARK, Calif. (KABC) &#8212; Mosquito control treatments will be conducted Wednesday and Thursday in Altadena and Monterey Park in an effort to reduce mosquito populations that create a significant public health risk, officials said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Crews will use ultra-low volume adulticide and low volume larvicide applications to target mosquitoes at multiple life cycle stages to control the population and reduce the risk of mosquito-borne disease.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The extreme heat has shrunk breeding cycles in half, sparking urgent treatments to stop the spread of West Nile virus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">A lot of people associate mosquito season with wet weather and they do tend to come out following a storm because of rain water that collects and pools, however, experts say mosquitoes can absolutely be active in a heat wave &#8212; even without rain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Mosquitoes only need a spoonful of water to lay eggs in and this intense heat, combined with humidity, has led to a spike in mosquito activity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;The zappers do not work. They&#8217;re actually going to be killing a lot of other insects that may be beneficial to our environment. If you really want to get rid of mosquitoes, unfortunately you have to try to get rid of them when they&#8217;re in their aquatic state,&#8221; said Anais Medina Diaz, San Gabriel Valley Mosquito &amp; Vector Control District Communications Director. &#8220;It is so much easier to kill hundreds of little mosquito larvae when they are in the water than one where it&#8217;s flying already and has bitten you a few times. So this is why we concentrate a lot on tipping and tossing and then taking action. We want to get rid of that standing water.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">It&#8217;s a good time to stock up on the bug spray and take safety precautions at home to prevent mosquitoes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Health officials recommend making sure to eliminate any pockets of standing water that can collect in rain gutters, discarded tires, buckets or anything that holds water for more than a week. And really focus on things that you might not think of, such as pet dishes, bird baths and drip trays under outdoor and indoor plants because mosquitoes can easily live inside your home as well. They also recommend ensuring swimming pools, spas and ponds are property maintained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">And of course, apply that mosquito repellant or maybe grab a buggy band before heading outdoors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">City News Service contributed to this report<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTEREY PARK, Calif. (KABC) &#8212; Mosquito control treatments will be conducted Wednesday and Thursday in Altadena and Monterey&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[368365,97],"class_list":["post-875217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-368365","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}