Mosquito season in Ojai

Courtesy Ventura County Environmental Health

Aedes aegypti mosquito

One summer when I was a kid at Camp Ramah, a mosquito invasion got so bad, the counselors issued a challenge. Anyone who could kill 21 mosquitoes earned the title "Ace." Nearly all 10 boys in my cabin earned for the coveted title, but we barely made a dent in the mosquito population.

The camp, on Fairview Road, just north of Ojai, is within insect-flying distance of Matilija Hot Springs, but it is not in some swampy, mosquito-breeding bog. The mosquitoes were likely coming from a preventable source.

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