Welcome to mosquitosf.com, the hub for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SF Water) Mosquito Abatement Courier Team (MAC Team) powered by Pestec. The SF PUC MAC Team is a group of dedicated cyclists and walkers who help reduce the risks mosquitoes pose to the residents of the City and County of San Francisco. If you see us on the street feel free to say hi!

Check out the NPR feature on the SF MAC Team

The Mosquito Abatement Courier (MAC) Team

The MAC team uses carbon neutral methods (bikes and walking) for mosquito abatement in the City and County of San Francisco. Mosquito abatement helps provide a higher quality of life to the residents of San Francisco because, aside from being pesky creatures, mosquitoes also carry viruses like the West Nile Virus, which was recently introduced to mosquito populations in northern and southern California.

The MAC bicycle team was created in 2005 as a response to the rapid spread of the West Nile Virus (WNV) in California. The first reported case of WNV in the U.S. was New York in 1999 and appeared in California two years later. Across the U.S. the West Nile Virus has claimed over 600 lives from 1999 to 2009, and is considered a serious health threat. Since its introduction to California, there have been over 800 human cases of WNV within the state. Seventy four of those have proven fatal. As of 2009 San Francisco has never had a single reported human case of the West Nile Virus; however, WNV infected bird and mosquito samples have been discovered within the City and County limits. In 2008, the city was one of only nine counties in California to have no reported WNV, due in a large part to the MAC team, SF Water and Pestec’s efforts. The mosquito abatement courier team provides several services for the city of San Francisco beyond that of pesticide application, including: inspections and monitoring when requested by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, reporting dead birds for collection and WNV testing through the California Fight the Bite campaign.

Each member of the bicycle courier team is capable of monitoring and treating catch basins in multiple neighborhoods per day with a reduced risk microbial larvacide (Vectolex). Vectolex is approved for use in San Francisco by the San Francisco Department of the Environment. The team covers approximately 750 miles per round by carbon neutral transport and depletes CO2 emissions by 4 tons a month over an eight month period, or roughly 32 tons of CO2 a year while saving San Francisco money.

Fight the Bite Campaign

The MAC team contributes immensely to the City and County of San Francisco’s Fight the Bite Campaign. The Fight the Bite Campaign urges area residents to report any mosquito activity as well as any dead birds to the local vector control program. This campaign has helped to track mosquito borne diseases in mosquito and bird samples throughout the City and County. These samples are essential in tracking disease activity in the local mosquito and bird populations, and ultimately help prevent such diseases from infecting people.

A large part of San Francisco’s successful mosquito abatement program has been education. Several times a day each MAC team member has conversations with San Francisco residents explaining what they are doing and why. During these brief conversations we are able to educate residents about this unique and carbon neutral program, as well as provide information about where mosquitoes can breed and how San Francisco residents can prevent mosquito activity. It is impossible to reduce mosquito breeding sites without the help of the City and County’s residents. Educating people on eliminating standing water as well as encouraging them to report mosquito activity and dead birds, enhances the MAC team’s effectiveness throughout the City.

Some information about the Mosquito Abatement season here in San Francisco:

• The season starts in mid to late February to make sure we have already treated all city catch basins BEFORE the majority of mosquitoes start breeding
• The season ends as the weather starts to cool and the rain becomes more frequent
• During the last two years November temperatures have been quite warm and mosquito activity is ongoing throughout the month.
• We take 3 weeks to inspect the over 22,000 city catch basins, this three week period constitutes a round.
• Typically we have between 11 and 12 rounds per season
• During the inspection of each catch basin a small color dot is marked near the basin indicating that it has been inspected. The color changes each round. (We will announce here each time a new round has begun, and which color should appear on the catch basins during that round). The round that began Thursday April 15th is using yellow paint.

The paint helps us to:

• Clearly show the round’s progress
• Identify missed basins
• The public can alert us to missed basins and other mosquito activity by contacting us
• During the 2009 season we had 11 complete rounds.
• On average it took 15.5 days to complete a round
• Each round we inspected approximately 22,495 basins
• The team worked over 14,000 hours to inspect a total of 272,441 catch basins
• We treated approximately 60% of the inspected basins with vectolex

Check a selection of the catch basins in San Francisco on our routes page.

Stay tuned to Mosquitosf.com for more information about the team throughout the season and throughout the year. For more information on the Fight the Bite campaign in California, please visit the State of California West Nile resource site.

For more information about the San Francisco Department of the Environment visit their page on integrated pest management.

For more information about West Nile Virus and mosquito control check out the San Francisco Department of Health page on mosquitoes and the West Nile Virus.