Southern house mosquito larvae in the lab at the Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District office in Garden Grove on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Lesly Saba, an Orange County vector control inspector, places Gambusia, also known as mosquitofish, into a backyard pond at a home in Orange on Wednesday, April 26, 2017, (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Gambusia, also known as mosquitofish, swim in a tank at the Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District office in Garden Grove on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Red Imported Fire Ants climb on a small glass vial in a yard in Orange, that Lesly Saba, an Orange County vector control inspector, will take back to the lab at the Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District office in Garden Grove for testing, on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. Saba treated the colony with Amdro Pro, a cornmeal that is people and animal safe but will kill the ants. (Photo by Mark Rightmire,Orange County Register/SCNG)

Lesly Saba, an Orange County vector control inspector examines a sample of water for mosquito larvae she scooped up from a pool of water between the railroad tracks and N. Orange Olive Road in Orange, on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)



A southern house mosquito in the Insectary at the Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District office in Garden Grove on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Lesly Saba, an Orange County vector control inspector uses her scoop to get a sample of water from urban runoff to check it for mosquito larvae under the bridge of Glassell Street in Hart Park in Orange, on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Mosquito larvae found in stagnant water in Hart Park in Orange, on Wednesday, April 26, 2017, swim in a small vial that she will take back to the lab at the Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District office in Garden Grove for testing. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Lesly Saba, an Orange County vector control inspector checks a sample of water from urban runoff for mosquito larvae in Hart Park in Orange, on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. The sample was full of mosquito larvae and she treated the water with Altosid pellets. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The sign outside the Insectary at the Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District office in Garden Grove on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)



Lesly Saba, an Orange County vector control inspector, gathers Gambusia, also known as mosquitofish, from a tank at the Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District office in Garden Grove on Wednesday, April 26, 2017, to take and put into a backyard pond at a home in Orange. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Lesly Saba, an Orange County vector control inspector speaks with David Tindall after checking his backyard pond for mosquito larvae in Orange, on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. Tindall’s pond was mosquito free due to the water is constantly moving. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Lesly Saba, an Orange County vector control inspector treats a drainage channel with stagnant water that was filled with mosquito larvae in a backyard adjacent to Hart Park in Orange, on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Lesly Saba, an Orange County vector control inspector sprays an oil on to stagnant water in a drainage channel with that was filled with mosquito larvae in a backyard adjacent to Hart Park in Orange, on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Lesly Saba, an Orange County vector control inspector holds a container of Altosid pellets that she uses to treat water from urban runoff for mosquito larvae in Hart Park in Orange, on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)



Lesly Saba, an Orange County vector control inspector checks for mosquito larvae in a bucket filled with water in a front yard of a neighborhood in Orange, on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. The water was filled with mosquito larvae and she dumped it out. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Lesly Saba, an Orange County vector control inspector examines a sample of water for mosquito larvae she scooped up from along a curb on N. Orange Olive Road in Orange, on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Lesly Saba, an Orange County vector control inspector uses her scoop to get a sample of water from a drain in a neighborhood in Orange, on Wednesday, April 26, 2017 and check it for mosquito larvae. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The blood-lusting killers attack in the darkest hours, after you’ve gone to bed or early in the morning.

If they were zombies or vampires, you would fear them. But these killers, which are very real, don’t get the respect or caution they deserve. Consider this: Since 2014, these creatures have passed along the potentially deadly West Nile virus to 1,311 people in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. How would you react if that number were connected to the phrases “mountain lion attacks” or “shark bites?”

Mosquitoes are the world’s deadliest animals, according to the World Health Organization. And, over the next few months, Southern California insect experts are bracing for a massive, region-wide mosquito attack.

Heavy rains during winter and spring washed away a key natural predator (the tiny gambusia fish), so mosquitoes have been reproducing “unchecked” according to Orange County Vector Ecologist Laura Krueger.

The rains left standing water everywhere, and that’s where the larvae from this unchecked mosquito reproduction are deposited.

You do not want nearby mosquitoes — disease-carrying blood suckers — to practice free love. But when they do, you rely on people like Lesly Saba, a Vector Control Inspector, to eradicate their offspring.

Ask what she does for a living, and she will say it succinctly:

“I am a mosquito killer,” said Saba, one of 19 killer/inspectors in Orange County.

And, of the coming season, Saba adds this:

“We need to get revved up.”

Bugs don’t know borders

In Los Angeles County, inspectors say their mosquito trap counts have doubled in recent weeks.

“The winter and spring storms have been a concern,” said Levy Sun, public information officer for Greater Los Angels County Vector Control District.

Levy said he is particularly concerned about the San Fernando Valley where a hot summer will allow the West Nile virus to replicate faster in the mosquitoes who carry it.

In Riverside County, vector experts are particularly concerned about a recently arrived invasive mosquito, Aedes aegypti, which carries yellow fever and the zika virus.

“The Aedes mosquito prefers to breed in very small amounts of water in or around homes,” said Dottie Merki, Public Information Officer with the Riverside Department of Health. “We educate (residents) to look for anywhere water is pooling such as upturned bottle caps, toys, tarps etc.”

On the front lines of this mosquito battle, Saba, 28, wears a long-sleeve shirt even though she can’t remember the last time she was bitten.

She and her team are good at what they do. In 2014, there were nine West Nile deaths in Orange County. That number dropped to eight the following year, then one last year. West Nile cases overall dropped in the county from 280 in 2014 to 36 last year.

Saba gives some of the credit to the inch-long gambusia. “That fish,” she said, “is my weapon of choice.”

The gambusias, said Vector communications specialist Patrick McCaffrey, “are saving Orange County in a big way. This is nature at work.”

Saba spends her days driving through Orange County neighborhoods, bringing with her a bucket with thousands of tiny gambusias. When she finds pools of standing water — sometimes in a public place, sometimes in a backyard – she dumps the gambusias and they start eating the mosquitoes.

Vector Control estimates there are 7,200 unfiltered or poorly maintained swimming pools in Orange County. They are called “green” pools, which is a euphemism. Really, Saba said, they’re brown or black pools. Such pools are disgusting, and when mosquitoes see them they lay eggs on the surface of the standing water. If that water moves, the larvae drown and the mosquitoes don’t reproduce. If it doesn’t move, the larvae survive.

Lately, a lot of that water hasn’t moved.

Bug detectives

Saba spent a recent morning in Orange, pouring tiny fish into two backyard fountains. The homeowner says his daughter had been bitten by a mosquito, so Saba checks the grounds very closely.

This time, the mosquitoes escape. But she’ll remember this place, and check it again soon.

Back in the lab, Krueger is talking about her concerns.

“This was the wettest winter since 2010,” Krueger said. “We’re most concerned about the Culex tarsalis (mosquito), which carries West Nile and can fly 15 miles.”

She wants Orange County residents to know what she knows. One way to track the disease is through dead birds. If you see a fresh, whole dead bird, Krueger wants you to call (714) 971-2421 ext. 117 to give a report.

Mosquitoes move the virus from birds to people.

In 2016, Krueger and her team in the lab tested more than 500 birds.

At Vector Control, they also go after fire ants, flies and rats. But none pose the same risks as mosquitoes.

The county has no programs to stop fleas, ticks or bees; there are no public agencies dedicated to eradicating spiders or snakes.

The pursuit of mosquitoes takes up 70 percent of Vector Control’s time.

“It’s a never-ending job,” Saba said