In Warm Climates, Pools Breed West Nile

Swampy swimming pools all over the country — a legacy of the foreclosure crisis — are becoming breeding grounds for disease-carrying mosquitoes.

The problem is particularly acute in warm climates like Florida and California, where officials are concerned about the spread of West Nile virus.

Just pumping out the water can aggravate the problem because mosquito larvae can spread through the storm water system. In many places treating the water with chemicals first is illegal. Health authorities recommend spreading the water over the lawn and giving the larvae time to die, but that can damage landscaping.

Authorities can’t track down owners to force them to care for the properties. "If you're a building official or a zoning inspector for a local government you really have to become almost like a CSI investigator just to track down who you should be talking to," says Joseph Schilling, director of policy and research for the Washington, D.C.-based National Vacant Properties Campaign, which focuses on the problem of abandoned houses.