Just as millions of annoying eye gnats have begun returning to southern Escondido backyards for the summer, county officials have decided to spend about $100,000 searching for the source of the pests and exploring possible remedies, the North County Times reported.
County officials had previously balked at paying for a study because the gnats do not bite or spread illness.
But a growing outcry from residents, who have been preparing to ask the Escondido City Council for help, prompted a change in course, said Chris Conlan, a supervising vector ecologist for the county.
"They are a nuisance --- there's no debate about that," Conlan told the paper last week. "When there gets to be a great number of them, they can make the quality of life pretty nasty."
But the study will be only the first step in what promises to be a long and complicated process, officials said.
The gnats could be coming from Lake Hodges, the Vineyard golf course, multiple organic farms that have sprouted in the area or a combination of these sources, said UC Riverside entomologist James Bethke, who has been studying the problem for the county.
