If you’ve been swatting at your ankles in the middle of the afternoon and wondering what changed, you’re not imagining things. The mosquitoes bothering Southern California homeowners today often aren’t the ones we grew up with.
Since around 2011, two invasive species — Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus — have spread across the region. Locals gave them a nickname that fits: ankle biters.
They break all the old rules
Most of what we learned about avoiding mosquitoes was based on native species that feed around dawn and dusk. Invasive Aedes don’t cooperate.
They bite during the day. They go for your legs, ankles and feet, usually below the knee, which is why you can get bitten standing at the grill and never see it coming. They’re persistent, biting several times in a single feeding. And they’ll follow you through an open door and keep right on going indoors.
They’re small and dark with sharp white stripes on the legs and body — easy to recognize once you know what you’re looking at.
The mosquito biting you was probably born in your yard
Here’s the detail that changes how you deal with them. Invasive Aedes are homebodies. Native mosquitoes can travel miles; these typically stay within about 500 feet of where they hatched.
That’s frustrating and encouraging at the same time. Frustrating, because the source is close — your property, or a neighbor’s. Encouraging, because it means what you do in your own yard genuinely matters.
They need shockingly little water
Forget ponds and marshes. Invasive Aedes breed in containers, and it takes almost nothing — a quarter inch of water is plenty.
The usual culprits: saucers under potted plants. Pet water bowls. Bird baths. Clogged rain gutters. Buckets, wheelbarrows, kids’ toys, folds in a tarp, old tires, even bottle caps.
In warm weather an egg becomes a biting adult in under a week. And the eggs are stubborn — they can survive for months in a dried-out container and hatch the moment water returns. So tipping out a saucer isn’t enough. Scrub the sides.
A measured word about disease
These species are capable of transmitting dengue, Zika and chikungunya. Local transmission in California remains rare — but it’s no longer hypothetical. Los Angeles County confirmed 14 locally acquired dengue cases in 2024, spread across six neighborhoods, and Pasadena saw local transmission in 2023.
That’s not a reason to panic. It is a good reason to take standing water seriously.
What to do this week
Walk your property and tip out anything holding water — then do it again next week. Scrub containers instead of just dumping them. Clear your gutters. Refresh pet bowls and bird baths every few days. Look under and behind things: the breeding sites we find are almost always the ones nobody thought to check.
If you’re still getting bitten after all that, the source may be past your fence line or somewhere on the property that isn’t obvious. That’s where we come in. At Dr. Pest, our mosquito control work focuses on finding and eliminating breeding sites across your property — not just spraying and hoping for the best.
Serving Torrance, Long Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and the South Bay. Contact us for a free quote.
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