Vector Control Cuts In Marin And Sonoma Counties Prompt Zika Virus Concerns

MARIN (CBS SF) -- With mosquito season approaching and concerns growing  about the Zika virus, residents in Marin and Sonoma County are finding out a tax they shot down is coming back to bite them.

It has been one year since voters denied a property tax increase to funding for Marin and Sonoma County Vector and Mosquito Control. But that was before the threat of Zika loomed large. Now, the North Bay is battling a gangbuster mosquito season in a self-proclaimed "severely constrained fiscal environment."

Nizza Sequeira, of the Marin and Sonoma County Vector and Mosquito Control said, "we are really busy now."

So busy, in fact, no one from vector control had time to talk to us. But in an interview we did with them in May, they said "we have a lot of areas that haven't had rain in a while and it is producing a lot of mosquitoes."

That uptick of mosquitoes has led to an unprecedented number of service requests because people say they're getting bit. But because vector control doesn't have enough people, response time is also longer than ever before. Sometimes up to two weeks.

Elizabeth Micksy, an expectant mother said that "as an expectant mother I would like to see a little more involvement in that area, but I don't know. That's frightening."

Especially concerning to expectant mothers is the fact there are fewer people in the field testing and surveying mosquitoes and mosquito-borne disease.

So while the mosquito that carries Zika hasn't made it to the Bay Area yet, two cases have already been reported in the district, leading to growing concern of what may come.

"I think that's a little terrifying. I think its important to take this seriously. Especially because there doesn't seem to be much of a solution... You just have to be careful," Micksy said.