Mosquito hunting near Bear Valley California May 2018

Here are some photos of Josh Esposito doing mosquito control in the backcountry near Bear Valley. The vernal pools can sometimes hold tens of thousands of mosquito larvae. Cattle are trucked up for spring and summer grazing, and provide unlimited blood for the snow pool mosquitoes. But years of treating have cut the mosquito numbers way down. (Note that we have not seen any negative impact on the frog population.)

Josh Esposito sampling for snow pool mosquito larvae at one of the numerous vernal pools in the Bear Valley area.

On far right you can see Josh as he samples the vernal pool for mosquito larvae.

Josh Esposito sampling for mosquito larvae at a vernal pool near Bear Valley California.

Check out the highly twisted tree. Life is hard in the high mountains, even for the trees.

Don't swim in that lake! It is not a lake. Josh Esposito poses in front if the Bear Valley Sewage Treatment pond. — Don’t swim in that lake! It is not a lake. Josh Esposito poses in front if the Bear Valley Sewage Treatment pond.