Foreclosures And Mosquitoes March Hand In Hand

October 29th, 2007

Nature hates vacuum. Man has deserted houses and homes – hounded out by foreclosures. Mosquitoes have taken over. 23 types of bloodsuckers are thriving in the stagnant waters of deserted pools. 1 million larvae come alive only in one pool. The residents of the locality are now in grave danger of being afflicted by the West Nile disease. In Contra Costa County already three are down with it. As yet Alameda County has not reported any human being afflicted by the West Nile scourge.

Vector technicians went on rounds of inspection and came up with the fact that all pool related problems are from abandoned foreclosed houses. They have seen for themselves the stinking waters bubbling with the menace and sometimes dotted with floating opossum carcasses. Larvae restricting chemicals were only short time measures and hardly adequate considering the dimensions of the problem. This new danger has given the foreclosure crisis another twist.

Contra Costa County set a record from April to June. 2,316 default notices have been sent out – this being the first step leading to foreclosure. 778 units have already foreclosed. During this same time Alameda County saw five high jumps in foreclosures and double jumps in defaults since the previous year. The story does not end with foreclosure. These houses overstay in the market because of the slump in buyers. This messes up the pools as mosquitoes bide their time for the fatal sting.

Warnings are being sent out to realtors to properly maintain the units that have been taken over. An educative alert is the call of the hour. Dead leaves, abandoned boats or swimming gear left behind choke the pools further as a carpet of rubbish gets entwined. Two-inch long mosquito fish known as guppy fish are being released to gobble up 500 mosquito larvae each day. To the fish it’s a spaghetti feast! One agency is rearing guppies and distributing them free to takers. People living next to foreclosed are having a trying time to cope with the rising menace. Complaints are pouring in. Governor Schwarzenegger sanctioned emergency founds to three most hard hit counties worth tens of millions of dollars. Contra Costa district has decided to levy a fine of $1,000 per day for discarded pools but the problem is to pinpoint the owners during the ongoing foreclosure process. Some realtors are maintaining these as swimming pools.

Source

Search images:

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.