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A Midwestern Doctor @MidwesternDoc - @DrJoelGator This has been an issue in each place where they released the Wolbachia mosquitos. I checked and it was done near Los Angeles too in July.
The only "good" news I can give you is that DMSO is very helpful for mosquito bites.
"Current, well-publicized Wolbachia releases near Los Angeles started in July 2026 in Bassett in the San Gabriel Valley.The San Gabriel Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District began its SGV Mosquito Match program in the unincorporated community of Bassett (just east of Los Angeles, near Baldwin Park / Avocado Heights) in July 2026.
Releases started around July 7–16, 2026, and were scheduled twice a week for 16 weeks through October 2026.
Officials planned to release more than 30,000 non-biting male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes per week (roughly 480,000 total) carrying Wolbachia from
https://t.co/qTPlhsUdMr
This is a suppression program (males only), not the self-spreading replacement method used by the World Mosquito Program.Earlier related activity:Small-scale MosquitoMate Wolbachia work in the greater Los Angeles area dates back to around 2015.
Debug/Verily (Alphabet) ran large Wolbachia male releases in Fresno County (Central Valley, not LA) from 2017–2019.
Other LA-area districts have used irradiated sterile males (a different technique) in 2024–2025."
The above summary is per Grok and what every official source says, but the consistent report once they are deployed is that bites get much worse.
Quoted Post:
Dr. Gator @DrJoelGator - I’ve been a pediatrician seeing mosquito bites every summer for years, and I have to say: the welts on kids lately seem HUGE.
Much bigger swelling. Much redder. Much itchier. Sometimes dramatic enough that parents think it’s cellulitis.
Kids can absolutely mount bigger local reactions to mosquito saliva—but anecdotally, this feels worse than it used to.
For most kids: cold compresses, hydrocortisone, calamine/moisturizer, and an age-appropriate antihistamine if the itching is bad.
Anyone else noticing the same thing this year?