By Lauren McSherry

Thick patches of briars interspersed with cattails grow in the mucky soil behind Ruth McMahon’s Los Altos Hills home on Burke Road. McMahon and some of her neighbors have voiced concern that the area could be a breeding spot for mosquitoes infected with West Nile Virus.

In the past month, she and her neighbors have found three dead birds in addition to a live raven, which later tested positive for the virus, in their back yards. They believe the area behind McMahon’s home is a breeding ground for mosquitoes and are worried because many who live in the area are either elderly or children - two groups susceptible to the disease.

McMahon contacted the Town Crier after reading in a Sept. 1 article that, as a result of a call from a concerned citizen, a sick raven, picked up by Palo Alto Animal Services and turned over to the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley, later died. It was one of two in Los Altos tested positive for West Nile Virus. McMahon was the concerned citizen.

“I’ve lived here for 63 years,” McMahon said, “and I’ve never seen so many mosquitoes in my life.”

The group of neighbors - Judy Kash, Virgil Gualtieri, Ilan Blech and Judy Krackauer in addition to McMahon - said they believe the area has become saturated with water because their neighbor, Ashok Narasimhan, is overwatering his landscaping.

Two years ago, the city forced Narasimhan’s contractor to remove pipes directing septic tank drainage into McMahon’s rain swell. Recently, the city repaired a leaky water pipe. Gualtieri said before the pipe was fixed, the water flowed from behind McMahon’s property and down Fremont Road.

Steve Garcia, public safety officer for the city of Los Altos Hills, confirmed that the water seems to be originating from Narasimhan’s property.

“We’ve been out there quite a few times,” Garcia said. “They water too much and the water from the irrigation flows downhill into her yard.”

A Santa Clara Vector Control technician visited the site last week and did not see any indication of mosquitoes on either Narasimhan’s or McMahon’s properties and confirmed there were no existing conditions on the properties where mosquitoes could breed, Garcia said.

Garcia explained that there is nothing he can do about the situation because the neighbor’s property complies with all city codes.

Narasimhan contends that he has been careful to implement water conservation. Because his home sits at a lower level than the other neighbors, the soil still becomes soggy, he said.

“In terms of how the water flows and where it accumulates, that’s really a function of topology,” Narasimhan said.

Noor Tietze, scientific technical services manager for vector control, said that according to the technician’s report there does not appear to be a problem and no mosquitoes were recovered. He added that it could be a seasonal issue.

Vector control will check the area on a monthly basis to get a more definitive idea of what is going on, Tietze said. Breeding conditions change after the first rains of the season.

There are 1,300 sites across Santa Clara County that technicians check at least monthly for mosquitoes.