PHONE
800-231-3236 (toll free)
707-285-2200 (office)
707-285-2210 (fax)

ADDRESS
595 Helman Lane
Cotati, California
94931-9736

HOURS
Monday through Friday
7:00AM to 3:30PM

Mosquitoes get all the nutrition they need from plant juices, but adult females have to take a blood meal before they can develop viable eggs. Wild or domestic birds, mammals, reptiles and even amphibians are hosts to different species. Many mosquitoes attack man, and a few (like the house mosquito Culex pipiens) take special advantage of human activity. Some bite mainly in the evening or early morning, while the host sleeps.

Mosquitoes can be agressive biters, serious pests and carriers of infectious disease. All need water in which to lay their eggs, and grow from larva to adult. Strong flyers will travel 40 miles or more looking for new habitats and hosts, while others stay close to the water source where they develop. In one study, salt marsh mosquitoes were marked and released near San Mateo. They were later recaptured by Marin / Sonoma workers 20 miles away in the North Bay.

Naturalists have been able to tell apart the different kinds of pest mosquitoes for more than 200 years. A century ago, they first discovered that some of them acquire and pass on parasites as they feed. Any blood meal source might contain a parasitic organism. Finding out where a disease agent came from requires a close-up practical knowledge of each species' biology and range of preferred hosts.

Of the world's 3,000 mosquito species, more than 50 live in California, and 22 in Marin and Sonoma Counties. Continuous surveillance and special control efforts are aimed at the five most troublesome species: Ochlerotatus dorsalis, Ochlerotatus squamiger, Ochlerotatus sierrensis, Culex pipiens and Culex tarsalis.