Rats, Fleas, Midges, Termites And Ants Love El Nino Summer Will Bring A Flood Of Pests To California Not To Mention The Plague And Firestorms

Thanks to El Nino, you can add pestilence to the list of biblical plagues that the average Californian will have endured along with fires, floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters.

Health officials said the all-time record rainfall this winter has nourished all manner of pests, ranging from swarming, mosquito-like midges to colonies of rats, mice and other rodents susceptible to infestation with fleas that transmit bubonic plague. Also, subterranean termites and Argentine brown ants - or at least their larvae - are thriving in unusually moist soil fed by El Nino rainstorms, experts said.

Joseph Krygier, environmental health specialist for the Vector Control Program in San Bernardino County, said warmer weather will soon bring these pests out of hiding to add to the woes of an already disaster-weary populace.

But relief - if you want to call it that - might not be far behind. The same rains that sent houses cascading down hillsides in mudslides has covered the Southern California mountains with unusually abundant vegetation, which fire officials warned is likely to fuel a particularly devastating wildfire season.

The wildfires will burn away the harborage and food source of the higher population of rodents. But they will also destroy the brush growth and root systems that stabilize the soil, increasing the risk of mudslides next winter.

“Every fire season has the potential to be a disaster. But we anticipate the fuel load will be significantly higher than usual this year,” said Karen Terrill, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Terrill said El Nino has not only added to shrub growth but also has caused unusually frequent “storm downs” in which branches and other debris are driven from trees to the ground in heavy rains and snowfalls in higher elevations, and accumulate to as much as three tons of kindling per acre in some areas.

But the new wrinkle this year is the pest problem, and Krygier said all signs point to an unpleasant summer in many areas of the state.

“We are seeing not only more vegetation, but more standing water in more places, and it will be there longer,” said Krygier, whose staff is out inspecting mosquito larvae buildups and trying to control them by introducing a species of guppie-like fish that eat larvae.

County officials are spreading a special type of bacteria that kills larvae but is not harmful to fish and other wildlife. They also are offering to help landowners clear weeds and drain pools of water.

Krygier said midges, which fly in large swarms, and black flies will be particularly troublesome this summer. He said he expects to receive a lot of complaints about crane flies, which look like mosquitoes but are bigger, and later in the spring when plants produce pollen, more wasps and bees.

“Most people look forward to warm weather in the summer, but I don’t think they know what this year holds for insects. I’m not looking forward to it,” Krygier said.

He said the increase in rodents, particularly in the mountain ranges, could increase the danger of bubonic plague, which is transmitted by fleas on rats, mice, ground squirrels and other rodents. The last case of bubonic plague infecting a human in San Bernardino County occurred in 1988, but health officials last summer found a rodent in the mountains whose blood tested positive for plague, Krygier said.

And as if flying insects, rodents, bubonic plague, wildfires and more landslides isn’t enough, there is the problem of poison oak oil that washed into the soil and is causing an outbreak of itching among disaster relief workers and residents in Laguna Beach as they clean up.

“After everything else that’s happened to them, poison oak is the last thing they needed,” said Donna Gamble, a nurse at the Red Cross center in Laguna Beach.