Two Inch Fish "An Awesome Ally" In Battle Against "Green Pools"; Dwindling Supply Has One County Concerned

In Orange County, California, ABC News reports:

• [A]s the foreclosure crisis deepens by the day, an unsightly and potentially deadly consequence of homes without owners are neglected swimming pools. An abandoned pool can become contaminated with algae within two weeks. Shortly after that, the mosquitoes follow … in the millions. It's a mess far too pervasive to stave off without daily work with a skimmer and a dash of chlorine.

• It's times like these that neighbors and homeowner associations turn to a 2-inch fish with a big appetite. Gambusia affinis, more commonly known as mosquito fish, have been used in this way since the 1920s. They are released into green pools in small batches of about 100, and they breed and eat hundreds of mosquito larvae a day. "These fish are an awesome ally," said Jon Miller a 22-year veteran technician at the Orange County Vector Control District. "I've had to treat over 200 pools in the last three months and with these [fish] I don't need to come back."

For more, see Mosquitoes, Fish, Pools and Foreclosure (What Do These Four Have in Common? More Than You Might Think) (Go here for entire story on one web page).

Regarding the growing shortage of these mosquito fish, see North County Times: Too many pools and too few fish; that bugs county vector control:

• Facing a record number of slimy swimming pools behind foreclosed homes and a shortage of the fish used to prevent the mosquito colonies that inhabit them, the [San Diego] county employees who combat disease-carrying pests have their work cut out for them. Their challenges come amid concerns that the mosquito-borne West Nile virus is unusually active in the county this year.