Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 85
County Supervisor Greg Cox and public health and environmental health officials held a West Nile virus prevention kickoff event Tuesday to remind the public that it’s time again for everyone to protect themselves against mosquitoes and the diseases they can spread. Surrounded by “Fight the Bite” educational materials, mosquito-eating fish and real-life examples of where homeowners might find dangerous standing water around their homes, Cox and county public health officer Dr. Wilma Wooten said mosquito-borne illnesses pose...
They're back. San Juan Capistrano may have its swallows, but in San Diego County in the spring has crane flies. Especially after wet winters like the one that passed. Crane flies look like giant mosquitoes, but they're not. Some people think they eat mosquitoes, hence the nicknames "mosquito hawks" and "skeeter eaters," but they don't. What they do is fly around crazily like creepy-crawly bumper cars, bouncing off walls, ceilings and especially lights, like the porch lights...
Several ticks trapped in routine monitoring along Lopez Canyon Trail in Sorrento Valley have tested positive for tularemia, prompting San Diego County Vector Control officials to urge people to remember to protect themselves and their pets when hiking. The best way to do that, county officials said, is to start by wearing insect repellent, proper clothing and by using insect control products on their pets that kill fleas and ticks. Tularemia, also known as "rabbit fever," is...
Three deer mice collected in routine monitoring in Boulevard have tested positive for the potentially deadly hantavirus, San Diego County Vector Control said this week. County officials said it is not uncommon to find hantavirus in wild mice throughout the county, but it is generally unlikely for people to come into contact with hantavirus if they keep wild rodents out of their homes, sheds, garages and workplaces. However, with the arrival of spring cleaning season, Vector...
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved an 11-page list of road work at their March 27 board meeting to send to the state to qualify for an expected $39.5 million in funding from California’s 2017 Senate Bill 1 gas tax, the Road Repair and Accountability Act. In a separate action, the board also received a report from the county’s Department of Public Works identifying potential cost-effective and environmentally sustainable ways to build and protect county roa...
San Diego County’s Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday, March 26, to start studying the idea of buying and selling electricity to county residents by scheduling a public workshop April 9 to hear from experts, consumer groups and other jurisdictions. The workshop is scheduled for 1:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 9, in the board chambers, room 310, at the County Administration Center, 1600 Pacific Highway, in San Diego. Supervisors voted unanimously in February to study the idea of Community Choice Energy programs, also known as c...
San Diego Supervisor Greg Cox and San Diego County officials said Friday that the county’s “Tell Us Now” smartphone app is now available in Spanish – “Reportelo Ahora” – and that people can now also report mosquito-related issues in addition to problems including potholes, air pollution, graffiti and price scanner overcharges. The county introduced the free “Tell Us Now” app in 2017. It was designed to make it as easy as possible for county residents to report problems when they see them, whether it was bumping into a ru...
January's rains have ended, but there are still a couple of potentially rainy months ahead in San Diego County. And through Feb. 10, county residents can still get a discounted, top-of-the-line, $90 Ivy rain barrel to be ready to "harvest" the next rains, cut watering costs and protect beaches, thanks to San Diego County's Watershed Protection Program and the nonprofit Solana Center. In addition that $90 cost could shrink even more – to as little as $25 – for residents who...
Five mice trapped in routine monitoring in southeastern, north central and north areas of the county have tested positive for hantavirus, marking the first appearance of the potentially deadly virus in San Diego County in 2019. San Diego County Vector Control officials reminded residents that they should always protect themselves if they find wild rodents, the main carriers of hantavirus, living in their homes, sheds and garages. Officials said people can do that by...
It could be mealy bugs in that homemade fruit basket, gypsy moth eggs hidden in the wreath from grandma's house, whiteflies in those hand-picked poinsettias or a dangerous plant virus in citrus picked from the backyard. Nobody wants to give – or get – a gift like that. They're not only going to gross somebody out, they could also wreak havoc on San Diego County's $1.77 billion agricultural industry. So, remember this holiday season: don't pack a pest. The holidays are all abo...
Santa's sleigh typically touches down on rooftops, not runways, but four county airports want to help it make that happen – and make this holiday happier for local, less fortunate children. All residents have to do is drop off a new, unwrapped toy into the Toys for Tots donation boxes at Fallbrook Airpark, McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad, Gillespie Field in El Cajon or Ramona Airport in Ramona. Or they can give their donated toy in person to uniformed U.S. Marines at F...
Cash registers ring and sales are glistening, but make sure your shopping is sweet by double-checking those receipts to insure against accidental overcharging by faulty cash register price scanners. OK, so the last part didn’t rhyme, but you get the idea. Overcharging does happen, and the County’s Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures (AWM) wants to make sure that if you’re shopping, you’re checking your receipts. Every year, AWM inspects more than 1,500 local businesses, checking price-scanning devices, scales...
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved a new plan Wednesday that could eventually add several hundred miles of safer, more convenient bicycle lanes to roads in and around unincorporated communities. The board voted 4-0, with Supervisor Ron Roberts absent, to approve a new Active Transportation Plan, the first update of the county's bike plan since 2003. The plan will be used to guide the potential addition of bike lanes or bike lane improvements when road projects...
Art doesn't just appear out of thin air; but it can come out of clean air. San Diego County's Air Pollution Control District wants to give local students' artwork illustrating the importance of clean air some free airtime in the district's official 2019 calendar. APCD is inviting all local students – kindergarten through 12th grade – to mail in their original artwork to the district, postmarked by Nov. 2, "depicting clean air messages and ways to reduce air pollution." The...
SAN DIEGO – It's got a new name, a new location and there's more on the menu. The county's Department of Environmental Health has created a new mobile website, www.SDFoodInfo.org, which gives people a quick, easy way to find and get information about thousands of restaurants, food trucks and markets across the county. The site will let people see three years' worth of health inspection results for restaurants, and it will show a map of the restaurants near them, draw street d...
It hasn't shown up here in San Diego County yet, but county Agriculture, Weights and Measures officials urged backyard bird owners to be on the lookout for a highly contagious bird-killing disease: virulent Newcastle disease. San Diego County Agriculture Commissioner Ha Dang urged bird owners to call the California Department of Food and Agriculture's Sick Bird Hotline at (866) 922-2473 if they notice birds exhibiting virulent Newcastle symptoms, such as coughing, sneezing,...
The back-to-school shopping season is back – and that makes it the perfect time for your first pop quiz of the new school year! But don’t worry. This quiz can save you money, by reminding you that everyone needs to check their receipts when shopping, so they’re not overcharged by faulty price scanners. Overcharging errors happen more often than you think. Every year, the County Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures inspects thousands of local businesses to make sure all the equipment they use to charge consu...
Living in San Diego County means enjoying the outdoors, whether it's hitting the beach, hiking in the mountains, visiting a park or just hanging out in the yard or neighborhood. But the outdoors is also bug territory. While the county is not as infamous for bugs as other places in the U.S., such as Minnesota's "unofficial state bird" the mosquito and Florida and the Southeast's blood-sucking "no see um" gnats, San Diego still has bugs that can bite and sting. So here, from the...
County health officials are urging pet owners who let their animals outside to remember to protect their pets – and themselves – from fleas after a county resident has recovered from a relatively rare but potentially deadly form of typhus. County public health officials said a North Park woman was hospitalized in May but has fully recovered after contracting murine typhus, a bacterial disease. It is most commonly spread by fleas that feed on infected rats, opossums, cats, rac...
Agriculture values sprouted for a second straight year in the annual County Crop Report, helped by 20-plus percent increases in the value of lemons, miscellaneous vegetables and tomatoes, and a continued renaissance for oranges. Overall, total agriculture values in San Diego County rose about 1.6 percent to more than $1.77 billion in the 2017 Crop Report released June 18. Last year, crop values increased 2.63 percent after two straight years of decline. Total production...
The summer solstice, the first official day of summer, has arrived – which means it's also the start of summer swimming pool season. So it's time to make sure the pool is kept safe and clean. Safe, because even though pools are fun, they can be dangerous places too. And clean, so that none of the summer swimmers gets sick. San Diego County's Department of Environmental Health has a few tips to help homeowners keep things safe and clean this summer. DEH doesn't inspect h...
The Memorial Day weekend marked the unofficial start of summer around San Diego County, and that means it’s time to start hitting the beaches. It also means it’s a good time to check out the county’s “Check In Before You Get In,” web app. It lets beachgoers find out immediately from their smartphone or laptop if water conditions at more than 80 local beaches are clean and safe, 365 days a year, for surfing, swimming or whatever they like to do in the water. The county of San Diego’s Department of Environmental Health has...
San Diego County residents now have one more reason to find and dump out standing water in and around their homes to fight mosquitoes. County environmental health officials said they've found a new type of invasive, aggressive, day-biting mosquito in La Mesa – the Australian backyard mosquito, Aedes notoscriptus, also known as the "Aussie Mozzie." County officials said they believe the mosquito is more nuisance than human health risk. However, they said it is aggressive and p...
With mosquito season near, San Diego County officials remind people that they need to dump out standing water and protect themselves from mosquitoes if they want to stay safe from illnesses like West Nile virus and Zika. County Supervisor Greg Cox and Chris Conlan, a supervising vector ecologist with the county’s Vector Control Program, held the county’s annual mosquito-prevention kickoff event, April 10, at Olivewood Gardens and Learning Center in National City. “The most important message we want to get out today is that...
It's still cool outside, but spring has sprung – and that means it's time again to break out the supplies, roll up your sleeves and start those major spring cleaning projects. You want to do it right. You want your home to be safe. So, here are five tips, a bunch of links and things to think about that can help you make this your best spring cleaning ever. First, recycle. Getting rid of stuff is a huge part of any successful spring cleaning. But remember, not everything b...