Santa Ana's top news & views blog

Santa Ana's top news & views blog

Tag Archives: Mosquito Gate

It is time to take down the Orange County Vector Control District

Posted on by Posted in Disease, Health and Medical, Orange County, Orange County Vector Control District, Politics, Santa Ana 8 Comments

OC Vector Control District Hacks

Just some of the hacks who serve on the Orange County Vector Control District’s Board of Trustees

From the OC Politics Blog

Is it time to fold the Orange County Vector Control District (OCVCD) into the Orange County Health Care Agency?  The OCVCD got caught this week trying to spray insecticides in several inner city neighborhoods of Santa Ana, after sending out a last minute press release last Friday about spraying that was at the time to take place on Monday.

I wrote a series of posts over at my New Santa Ana blog that exploded on Facebook, generating over 60,000 views and thousands of calls and emails to the many local politicians whose contact information appeared in my posts.  By Monday the OCVCD was waving the white flag.  They “suspended” the spraying due to the weather but the reality is that the backlash I generated, which I ended up calling “Mosquito Gate” made the spraying a total no-go.

Residents said they were unaware of the spraying and reacted online, with some calling the procedure a “toxic spray down.” Some residents questioned why only specific neighborhoods were targeted. Others who work in the early hours expressed concern of health effects associated with the scheduled early-morning spraying, according to the OC Register. Continue reading→

Public pressure mounting on the O.C. Vector Control District to stop their chemical spraying

Posted on by Posted in Anaheim, Disease, Environment, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Health and Medical, Orange County, Orange County Vector Control District, Politics, Santa Ana Leave a comment

Concerned residents convinced the Garden Grove City Council, at their meeting tonight, to oppose the Orange County Vector Control District’s plans to conduct aerial spraying of mosquito poison over our homes.  The Garden Grove City Council is sending a letter to the Vector Control District asking them to delay the spraying and hold public hearings, according to KCBS News.

A Facebook group committed to stopping the spraying now has over 1,500 members.  Click here to join.  Many of these concerned residents protested at the offices of the Vector Control District, in Garden Grove, today.

As usual the Vector Control District is trying to scare us but the reality is that this spraying is not necessary.  They are doing it to justify their budget and their continued pilfering of our property tax dollars. Continue reading→

Protest against spraying our homes with poisonous chemicals set for today at the Vector Control District’s office

Posted on by Posted in Disease, Entertainment, Environment, Garden Grove, Health and Medical, Insects, Orange County Vector Control District, Santa Ana Leave a comment

Stop the spraying

Concerned Orange County residents are gathering today, September 8, 2015, at 4 pm, at the offices of the Orange County Vector Control District to protest the scheduled spraying of a chemical poison on our households that is set to take place this week on Tuesday and Wednesday over the cities of Orange, Tustin, Villa Park and portions of Anaheim, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Stanton between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m.

The O.C. Vector Control District is located at 13001 Garden Grove Blvd., in Garden Grove. News crews from several local TV and radio stations will be there to witness the protest.  If you cannot be there you can still call the Vector Control District and complain at (714) 971-2421 or (949) 654-2421. Continue reading→

The O.C. Vector Control District will spray mosquito poison over our homes on Sep. 9-10

Posted on by Posted in Disease, Environment, Health and Medical, homeless, Orange County, Orange County Vector Control District, Politics, Public Safety, Santa Ana 26 Comments

Aerial mosquito poison spraying in Orange County

Here we go again.  The Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District has announced that they are going to be conducting aerial spraying of a chemical poison over the cities of Orange, Tustin, Villa Park and portions of Anaheim, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Stanton between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. on Wednesday, September 9, and Thursday, September 10, 2015 (weather permitting).

The chemical is called Duet.  This is a mosquito control product registered for use by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  That said it is a terrible idea to spray this product. Duet is highly toxic to other insects, such as bees.  It is also deadly to fish. Continue reading→

The OC Vector Control District will be promoting spraying at Tuesday’s City Council meeting

Posted on by Posted in Civic Affairs, Health and Medical, homeless, Orange County Vector Control District, Santa Ana 8 Comments

Standing water at the Santa Ana City Hall

Just when you thought the threat of the Orange County Vector Control District spraying chemicals on our homes here in Santa Ana was over, the OCVCD is scheduled to make a presentation to the Santa Ana City Council at tomorrow night’s City Council meeting, set for Oct. 7, 2014, at 7 pm, at the Council’s Chambers.

The OCVCD recently made headlines again when they proposed spending a million dollars on an exhibit about mosquitoes at the Discovery Center in Santa Ana.

However as we have disclosed in recent articles the West Nile Virus problem in Santa Ana is almost entirely focused on the homeless population.  The homeless sleep outside and as such are more exposed to mosquitoes than the rest of us.  As such spraying our homes is senseless and most likely is just engineered to scare us into allowing the OCVCD to raise our property taxes again.  It is a tax heist. Continue reading→

The OC Vector Control District wants to raise property taxes to pay for a museum exhibit

Posted on by Posted in Democratic Party, Disease, Health and Medical, Orange County, Orange County Vector Control District, Santa Ana Leave a comment

OC Vector Control District Hacks

The OC Vector Control District’s Trustees never tire of raising your property taxes!

From the OC Politics Blog

Today, the Orange County Vector Control District’s Board of Trustees “will consider contracting with the Discovery Science Center for a decade of exhibit space costing $1 million – averaging out to $100,000 a year,” according to the O.C. Register’s Watchdog.

Naturally, the OVCD’s staff is recommending a hike of about $1 a parcel that would bring in some $500,000 annually to pay for this exhibit.  They want to raise our property taxes even though the OCVCD is awash in cash – they have a cushion of almost 70 percent of what it spends in a year.

As we suggested in a recent post, this is the epitome of a bloated County agency that really should be absorbed into the OC Health Care Agency – and all of their field spraying and extermination activities should be outsourced to contractors.  This agency owes millions of dollars in unfunded pension and health benefit liabilities that we could avoid further via outsourcing! Continue reading→

Why didn’t the OC Vector Control District focus on the homeless in the first place?

Posted on by Posted in Disease, Health and Medical, homeless, Orange County, Orange County Vector Control District, Public Safety, Santa Ana 8 Comments

Homeless

The Orange County Vector Control District has put the spraying of insecticides in Santa Ana on hold due to the ongoing hot weather, as reported on their website.

They are picking on Santa Ana because our city has allegedly had 40 West Nile Virus infections, which is the highest number of infections of any city in the county, according to county data.

But hold on a minute – it turns out that the reason we have had more West Nile Virus infections is not our population at large but rather one specific demographic – the homeless. Continue reading→

OC Vector Control District Trustee Aguinaga’s response regarding mosquito spraying

Posted on by Posted in Cecilia Aguinaga, Disease, Health and Medical, Orange County, Orange County Vector Control District, Santa Ana 6 Comments

Cecilia Aguinaga

By: Cecilia Aguinaga, Trustee, OC Vector Control District

I believe the recent events involving efforts to eradicate the West Nile Virus require some clarification in the media. I received several disturbing emails from Santa Ana residents that caused me to take action on their behalf. Over the weekend I made phone calls and talked to Mike Hearst, the District Manager of the Orange County Vector Control District.

Although I do not have the authority to make decisions regarding how the OCVCD conducts its spraying, I was able to discuss the issue and
express the concerns that were voiced by residents. With this information at their disposal, the OCVC agreed to delay their schedule to spray in order that additional notification could be given to the people and agencies of Santa Ana. Continue reading→

The Orange County Vector Control District’s response about spraying in Santa Ana

Posted on by Posted in Disease, Health and Medical, Orange County, Orange County Vector Control District, Public Safety, Santa Ana Leave a comment

Please don't spray me

The Orange County Vector Control District (OCVCD) has created a formal response to the hundreds if not thousands of emails and calls they have received from Santa Ana residents concerned about chemicals being sprayed in their neighborhoods.  The full response is below.  It is pretty clear that they still want to spray in Santa Ana.

The OCVCD is still harping on the fact that Santa Ana is leading the County in West Nile Virus infections even though there has been only one death in our city due to this disease.  Santa Ana residents have come down with 26 cases of the West Nile Virus – out of some 350,000 residents.  For comparison’s sake 12 residents of Anaheim have come down with the West Nile Virus.  Click here to see the latest updates on Orange County West Nile Virus cases.

Consider that the Orange County Health Care Agency reported, in February of this year, 16 deaths due to influenza.  The common cold kills scores of Americans every year as the elderly often are struck by secondary bacterial respiratory infections.  And the Center for Disease Control says that the West Nile Virus is no reason to panic:

Continue reading→

The OC Vector Control District must consider alternatives to spraying in Santa Ana

Posted on by Posted in Disease, Health and Medical, Orange County, Orange County Vector Control District, Public Safety, Santa Ana 2 Comments

Why is the Orange County Vector Control District so gung ho to spray chemicals in Santa Ana’s inner city neighborhoods when the Center for Disease Control says that:

Fortunately, most people infected with WNV will have no symptoms. About 1 in 5 people who are infected will develop a fever with other symptoms. Less than 1% of infected people develop a serious, sometimes fatal, neurologic illness.

There is ample scientific research that indicates spraying these insecticides isn’t a great idea at all.  (See the links below).

But Santa Ana Councilman Sal Tinajero said in an email this week that he wants the spraying to happen.  I spoke to Mayor Miguel Pulido yesterday and he is so far the only Santa Ana Council Member who is fighting the spraying.  That is typical as the rest of the City Council is lazy and won’t spend much time on this – even though my sources say they are all being inundated with calls and emails thanks to our articles.  We need to keep the pressure up!  The contact info for all of the local elected officials is at the end of this post. Continue reading→

How we stopped the mosquito spraying operation in Santa Ana

Posted on by Posted in Disease, Health and Medical, Janet Nguyen, Orange County, Orange County Vector Control District, Sal Tinajero, Santa Ana 11 Comments

Santa Ana Mosquito Gate

Officially the Orange County Vector Control District is saying that they canceled this week’s proposed mosquito insecticide spraying due to the weather and while it is true that the weather this week is not optimal for spraying the insecticide in question there is a lot more to this story.

When I first posted the first press release, last Friday, announcing that the mosquito spraying operation was going to begin this Monday, Sep. 8, 2014, I wondered why only Santa Ana was being targeted.  I later received a phone call from a former Santa Ana Council Member asking me to follow up the press release with more information about the spraying in question.

I wrote that post and posted the link on the Facebook pages of various local elected officials and community/political organizations.  The post included a full list of the local elected officials including their Facebook pages, phone numbers and both personal and government emails.  And then the Facebook community responded…  Continue reading→

Update: Santa Ana mosquito spraying canceled for week of Sep. 8-11

Posted on by Posted in Disease, Environment, Health and Medical, Orange County, Orange County Vector Control District, Santa Ana 2 Comments

Orange County Vector Control District

Orange County Vector Control District

Adult Mosquito Control To Be Conducted In The City of Santa Ana

*** UPDATE 8/9/14 ***

Due to the current weather conditions, the Orange County Vector Control District has cancelled adult mosquito control applications in the City of Santa Ana until further notice. Two weather conditions are required for a successful adulticide application. The first is an inversion layer of hot and cold air during the evening hours that aid in keeping the fog close to the ground. The second is proper wind speeds between 5-10 mph. Based on current and 10-day forecasts, neither of these conditions will be met in the scheduled application period of September 8th-11th, 2014.

The District remains committed to providing the citizens of Orange County with the highest level of protect from vectors and vector-borne disease. Mosquito control is shared responsibility, and as such, every citizen has a role to play in reducing the threat of West Nile virus. Follow these recommendations to help protect you and your community: Continue reading→

Mayor Pulido to discuss mosquito spraying plans with city officials and Vector Control

Posted on by Posted in Civic Affairs, Disease, Health and Medical, Miguel Pulido, Orange County, Orange County Vector Control District, Public Safety, Santa Ana Leave a comment

West Nile Virus Map

Mayor Pulido to meet with city officials to discuss the OC Vector Control District’s spraying plan

By Mayor Miguel Pulido

SANTA ANA – Mayor Miguel Pulido will be meeting on Monday morning with Santa Ana city officials, including the City Manager, David Cavazos, to discuss the proposed spraying of an insecticide in Santa Ana’s neighborhoods by the Orange County Vector Control District.  The intent of the spraying program is to kill mosquitoes so as to reduce the risk of West Nile Virus transmission in Orange County.

Mayor Pulido is concerned about the short public notice about the spraying as the press release announcing the spraying was distributed last Friday and the Vector Control District was planning to start spraying as early as this Monday, September 8, 2014.

The spraying has since been called off temporarily due to unfavorable weather, as disclosed in an updated press release. Continue reading→

Exclusive – mosquito spraying in Santa Ana delayed

Posted on by Posted in Cecilia Aguinaga, Civic Affairs, Disease, Environment, Health and Medical, Orange County Vector Control District, Santa Ana 13 Comments

OC Mosquito Spraying Map

Spraying to kill mosquitoes in Santa Ana has been delayed and will not take place this Monday morning, according to Santa Ana’s Trustee on the Orange County Vector Control District, Cecilia Aguinaga.  I spoke to her and to the director of the Vector Control District this morning.  They explained that they cannot do misting of the insecticide they want to use if there is no wind and the prognosis for Monday calls for very little wind.

I asked them why Santa Ana is being sprayed and not other cities and they explained that our city is apparently a real problem with regard to mosquitoes – but only in a swath of the central part of the city, in four areas outlined in the map above.  They also said that eventually the district will spray in other cities as well but that 60% of the problem is here in Santa Ana.

The areas to be sprayed run from Euclid on the West to Tustin Ave. on the East with a cluster of homes ranging from First St. on the North to Warner on the South, in between Harbor and Bristol. The majority of the areas being sprayed are in Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Sal Tinajero’s Ward 6 and Councilman Vince Sarmiento’s Ward 1. Continue reading→

Why is Santa Ana the only OC city getting sprayed starting on Monday?

Posted on by Posted in Civic Affairs, Disease, Environment, Health and Medical, Orange County Vector Control District, Public Safety, Santa Ana 60 Comments

UPDATE: It is time to take down the Orange County Vector Control District

UPDATE: How we stopped the Santa Ana Mosquito Spraying operation

Orange County Vector Control and the City of Santa Ana distributed a press release yesterday about spraying of an insecticide to kill mosquitoes that is taking place only in the City of Santa Ana, starting on Sep. 8 through Sep. 11, 2014.  Why was this news sent out so late in the week, on a Friday?  And why isn’t Anaheim getting sprayed when they have had 42 West Nile Virus cases while Santa Ana has had 31 such infections reported?  And Tustin and Garden Grove have had twice the West Nile Virus fatalities that Santa Ana has had – which is exactly one death.  Click here to see a map showing where the illnesses and deaths have occurred in Orange County. Continue reading→