The other day I saw a Mosquito Abatement truck at the bottom of our road. I’ve never noticed much of a mosquito problem here — the Mosquito Abatement folks must be doing a nice job!
Then I remembered a small line-item on our property taxes that seemed at the time for Mosquito Abatement. So I pulled out the statement and found that we pay $1.74 a year to live Mosquito-free. And there’s actually a separate $1.50 charge for “Mosquito Assess 2.” I guess it costs almost as much to assess the mosquitoes as it does to abate them.
Here’s what I learned about Alameda County’s Mosquito Abatement program:
- They were very-forward thinking in terms of domain name registration, snatching up the coveted mosquitoes.org property in 1999. It doesn’t appear they’ve updated their web design since then though.
- The program collected $1.8 million in “special assessments” in 2009, which propelled it to $1.2 million in year-end “profit.” Ooooh, maybe that’s what that “Mosquito Assess 2″ charge was.
- They will give you free fish! If you have a pond on your property, the Mosquito Abatement department will give you free mosquito-eating fish to put in it.
- Mosquito Abatement has been going on in Alameda County since 1904, and has been on property taxes since 1982.
- If you live in Alameda County and are “being bitten by mosquitoes” you can fill out this humorous form to dispatch a certified abatement technician to your house. I love the instructions to capture one of the mosquitoes and hang it by the door!
Money well spent? Hard to say, we’ve never lived here without the Mosquito Abatement service. If $3.24 is all it takes to keep me from getting West Nile I guess I’m OK with that.
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