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
- Pests and vectors (below)
- Featured mosquitoes of Marin and Sonoma counties (overview)
- Mosquito surveillance
- Mosquito control
- Ticks
- Yellowjackets
- Headlice
Insects can be serious pests. Too many aggressive yellowjackets or buzzing flies will spoil your lunch hour. The bite of a spider, flea, gnat, or horsefly can hurt for days, and might develop into an itchy skin rash. Some spider bites leave long-lasting, ulcerous sores. An outbreak of head lice is sure to upset teachers, children and parents. And people are often allergic to the droppings and body parts of mites and cockroaches, that are a common part of everyday house dust.
Diseases like the flu are spread directly from person to person, but many others are carried by arthropod vectors. The list includes viruses, rickettsia and bacteria, protozoans and worms. Almost every type of blood-feeding arthropod serves as a carrier, or intermediate host for some kind of disease agent. The vast majority of these diseases occur only in wildlife, but some can be transmitted to man (zoonoses) or domestic animals, and a few affect mankind alone.
| Kingdom | Phylum | Class | Order | Examples | Blood-feeding |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animalia | Arthropoda | 1. Arachnida | Acarina | ticks and mites | yes |
| Araneida | spiders | no | |||
| Scorpionida | scorpions | no | |||
| 2. Insecta | Anoplura | lice | yes | ||
| Diptera | mosquitoes, flies | yes | |||
| Hemiptera | bugs | yes | |||
| Hymenoptera | bees, wasps | no | |||
| Siphonaptera | fleas | yes |