Unprecedented swarms

Residents are calling it infuriating. Officials are calling it unprecedented. And anyone who has gone anywhere near the Bolsa Chica Wetlands lately knows exactly what to call it: swarms of mosquitoes, biting like mad, all day long.

“You can’t get out of the car and into the house before they’re on you,” said Susan Pinkstaff, who lives near Marine View Park behind the wetlands. “Sometimes they get in the house just because you’re coming in the door. They’ve left huge welts.”

County officials said they are doing what they can to fight the infestation, but they say they were blindsided by changes in the wetlands this year since state workers opened an inlet from the sea to the wetlands for the first time in 100 years.

There is standing water throughout the area in places they never had to look before, he said.

“Since the marsh was restored, it’s still a little bit unstable,” said Orange County Vector Control spokesman Michael Hearst. “Every time there’s a new high tide it gets remodeled a little bit.”

As a result, workers haven’t been able to predict where to spray to stop the insects from hatching, Hearst said.

They also spray to kill adult mosquitoes, but it is far less effective. It took till last Thursday to find the likely main source of infestation, he said, so it may take another week for their efforts to really cut into the population.

That’s a major pain for residents, because the black salt-marsh mosquitoes hatching in the Bolsa Chica are long-lived, wide-ranging and “vicious,” Hearst said. They prefer to feast on mammals.

On the bright side, this species doesn’t carry the dangerous West Nile virus, he said.

Residents have made the nuisance a major topic of conversation, from casual conversations while buying bug repellent to lengthy discussions online.

“People are talking about mosquitoes left and right, up and down,” said Mai Zimbleman, who just moved into a house behind the wetlands. “Nobody knows what is happening.”

Unfortunately, Hearst said, residents can only do so much against bugs that breed on wetlands. Hearst advises buying insect repellent, making sure windows and doors are shut tight, and waiting for spraying to cut into the bloodsucking hordes.

“We’re just not used to having people complain about mosquitoes in Orange County,” he said. “We feel horrible about it, but it’s a matter of a learning curve associated with a new wetland. This is a challenging situation, but we’ll get it.”