California Has a Mosquito Problem

A Global State Invites Global Insects. Is It Prepared to Bite Back?

One stifling July evening in 1952 a recently discharged Marine veteran, home from Korea, was spending the Fourth of July weekend camping at Lake Vera in the rolling foothill terrain of the Sierra Nevada, northeast of Sacramento. Mosquitoes were out in force that evening, and a considerable number of them fed voraciously on the lone Marine as he slept openly under the stars. When they were done, some of them dispersed to other areas of the lake and bit some of Camp Fire Girls who were out on an excursion.

The …