LUCERNE, Calif. – The Lucerne Friends of Locally Owned Water (Lucerne FLOW) will host their monthly meeting on Saturday, Aug. 14.

The meeting will begin at 11:30 a.m. at the Lucerne Alpine Senior Center, 10^th and Country Club.

Breakfast is available beginning at 9 a.m.

The public is welcome.

LAKEPORT – As a cost-saving measure, the American Red Cross of Lake County has moved out of its building at the Lake County Fairgrounds in Lakeport.

However, the Red Cross will be housing manikins and supplies at the Kelseyville Fire Department, as well as offering classes for families and youth in the fire department’s training room.

“We’d like to thank Richard Persons and his staff at the fairgrounds for being such generous landlords for the past few years,” said Red Cross Executive Director Donna Neu. “We were very fortunate to be able to work in such a great location.”

But, due to economic reasons, the Red Cross can no longer afford to pay a monthly rental fee and will be moving out of the fairgrounds location in early September.

Luckily, Kelseyville Fire has stepped up to help the Red Cross continue to maintain its presence in Lake County.

“We appreciate the partnership with the Kelseyville Fire Department and look forward to offering life-saving training classes in the future,” Neu said.

Disaster volunteers also will continue to offer disaster response and training in the county.

Be sure to stop by the Red Cross First Aid Station during the Lake County Fair this year.

The Red Cross will have volunteers in the station who can also provide safety and preparedness information.

For more information about the Red Cross, to sign up for a CPR or First Aid class, or to volunteer, please call 707-263-8451.

The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the Loconoma Valley High School on Washington Street.

Agenda items will include MATH Goals for 2010, District 1 Supervisor Jim Comstock’s report and a status report on the Middletown Square design.

Under new business they will discuss state Assembly 1st District candidates Karen Brooks and Wesley Chesbro.

MATH meetings are subject to videotaping. Meeting proceedings may be available for viewing on public access television and/or the Internet.

A municipal advisory council, MATH serves the residents of Anderson Springs, Cobb, Coyote Valley (includes HVL), Long Valley and Middletown.

LAKE COUNTY – California Human Development, a nonprofit agency serving northern and central California, is seeking interested families for a First-Time Homebuyer assistance program.

The program is designed to help low and moderate income households, including those with special needs, to purchase a house and maintain an affordable mortgage.

It will be available to those who have not owned a home in the past three years with some exceptions, such as families that lost a house through divorce or those that currently own a severely substandard home.

This First-Time Homebuyer program can serve a limited number of clients.

Requests to be placed on the waiting list should be made by Aug. 20.

The California Human Development housing department has complete bilingual English/Spanish capacity and can provide information and assistance in person, by telephone, or by e-mail.

Please contact Clara Turner, Housing Development Specialist, at 707-521-4763 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

California Human Development is a fair housing provider.

LAKEPORT – This year started with a wet spring that transitioned quickly to a warm summer, conditions which create the perfect breeding ground for all types of insects.

Various types of flies are normally present in Lake County, and are out in abundance this year. Until the weather cools in the fall, problems with flies will only get worse, but there are things residents and business owners can do to help themselves.

Flies need moist, warm organic material in which to lay their eggs. Decaying fruit, vegetables, garden waste, kitchen waste, lawn clippings and other yard waste provide flies with perfect places to lay eggs, as do decaying tules, aquatic weeds, and algae mats.

Food waste dumpsters or garbage cans containing meat, out of date food items and table scraps are perfect as well, along with animal bedding and waste.

Humans are most commonly bothered by the adult stage of flies, however, the larval stage should be the prime target for control. Chemical pesticides must be applied directly to the fly, and therefore are of little use for large populations.

Elimination of larval habitat is the preferred method of pest fly suppression. By removing the material in which larvae develop, the life cycle of the fly can be broken. This prevents the production of the adult pests.

Egg-to-adult fly development requires as little as seven to 10 days. Once the female fly has mated, she may lay as many as 500 eggs.

All flies undergo metamorphosis with egg, larva, pupa, and adult stages of development. The female fly lays eggs in moist organic material where the larvae, or “maggots,” complete their development. When the maggots are ready to undergo the next step in their metamorphosis, they convert their larval skin into the puparium, a hardened shell within which the pupa develops.

The pupa then transforms into the adult fly, which emerges. Most flies don't travel very far over their normal life span of twenty to thirty days, usually less than one mile.

Flies are attracted to smells, and most traps cannot compete with garbage or other aromatic substances. Fly papers or ribbons are effective at eliminating a few flies.

Bug zappers should only be used indoors and not be visible from the outside. Bug zappers outdoors can attract more flies than they kill. They should also not be used near food preparation areas because they may result in food contamination with insect parts.

Garbage should be kept in containers with tight-fitting lids and garbage cans or dumpsters should be emptied twice a week to break the fly life-cycle, and disinfected at least once a week.

Chemical pesticides may be necessary for suppressing adult fly populations in some situations, but they are not a substitute for fly prevention through the elimination of breeding sites. Because flies can quickly develop resistance to insecticides in a few generations, pesticides should only be used as a last resort to obtain immediate control.

Pesticides are poisonous, so people should always read and carefully follow all precautions and safety recommendations given on the container label. All chemicals should be stored in the original labeled containers in a locked cabinet or shed, away from food or feeds, and out of the reach of children, unauthorized persons, pets and livestock.

Biological controls know as fly predators are available from a variety of sources and are used by numerous livestock producers and high traffic facilities in Lake County.

Fly predators are tiny insects that lay their eggs in the fly pupa, where they hatch and eat the developing flies, preventing them from becoming pests. Fly predators do not sting or bite, and they only travel a short distance. They are only interested in fly pupae, so they don't bother people or animals.

They can be purchased for less than $2 per thousand fly predators and can be delivered on a recurring basis via the U.S. Postal Service. They can be used outside any home or business, including restaurants, farms and ranches, horse facilities, and grocery stores. Fly predators are highly susceptible to chemical agents used to kill adult flies, so regular releases of the fly predators are recommended.

Lake County Fair uses fly predators from a California company called Spaulding Laboratories, but there are other companies as well. The fair uses as many as a half million fly predators in a year, usually receiving shipments of fifty thousand at a time for several weeks before and after the annual event on Labor Day weekend.

The fair works closely with Lake County Vector Control District on a chemical spray regimen, and times the release of fly predators around the chemical applications to try to keep as may fly predators alive for as long as possible.

No chemicals are applied at the fairgrounds during the week of the Lake County Fair due to the large number of people and food animals on the site, but all garbage, animal bedding, and waste is removed on a daily basis. Larger numbers of fly predators are also released during the event.

For more information about controlling the flies at your home or business, contact the Lake County Fair for an informational brochure, 70-263-6181, Lake County Vector Control District for more detailed information, 707-263-4770, or search for “fly predators” on the Internet.