Does your town spray for mosquitoes?

Every town I have lived in has sprayed for mosquitoes.

Yes. In the summer, a truck comes through the neighborhood at night and sprays. I’m not crazy about it, as we have plenty of dragonflies around here that should be able to naturally control them. No precautions are taken, other than staying inside. Is there something we should know?

Yes they do but only on the Agricultural and Delta part of it. They do a nice job of only doing it on nights that there is either no wind or a breeze blowing away from town.

My town announced that they are going to spray and I’m really uncomfortable with it. I would like to think that my discomfort is completely irrational. The insecticide is called DUET and the label on this stuff looks awful (at least to a fairly crunchy chemicalphobe like myself). Last year, they sprayed one night and I sent the kids and wife away to a nearby town for the night. We probably don’t have that luxury this week.

Breathe….just breathe….(tell me I’m crazy)

Just bottle up tight for the night. DUET breaks down very rapidly once it’s hit by sunlight.

No, they’ll very rarely do some target control, likely in conjunction with the state, and have no budget or formal program for it. I think they’ve acted on a small scale once, possibly twice, near a couple swampy areas after warm winters in the last 10 or 15 years.

For annual control it’s left to the people to eliminate/minimize breeding areas.

I hope so. If you’ve ever seen what mosquito borne illness can do to someone physically, believe me, I’d rather deal with some spray.

No we don’t. The vector control does search for stagnant water, especially stagnant swimming pools. bu there is no wholesale spraying for mosquitoes.

No, I wish they did.

Not in my area. They might do localized spraying or other abatement at the Sepulveda Flood Control basin or Lago Balboa, which are about 4–5 miles away.

This area is semi-arid (about 14”-15” of annual rainfall), so most of the major bodies of standing water around here are chlorinated swimming pools with filtration systems.

I’ve been living here for about 57 years, and to the best of my knowledge, I’ve never been bitten by a mosquito in this area.

However, before anyone starts turning green over my geographic luck, fleas love me and they’ve occasionally bitten me, but not yet this year.

No. We don’t spray where I am and I have never heard of this happening in Australia. Although, given in the far North there is the risk of Ross River Fever and Dengue Fever, it is possible that it does happen, at least at times of the year when mosquitoes are in high numbers. I will have to do more research.

I would be concerned about us doing this though. Mosquitoes are part of the food chain and as such food for higher order insects/animals. If the poisoned insects are eaten by other animals the toxins can build up in animals the eat them. I went to a bird of prey demonstration yesterday and the handler said pesticides and insecticides were a major problem for these birds and are affecting their numbers. They eat animals that eat insects and plants affected by these chemicals.

If we don’t have sitting water around our homes, screen our windows, use fans and personal insecticidal products we can reduce the effect mosquitoes have on us individually. I found this document about how we manage outbreaks of Dengue etc. officially.

Maybe someone can speak to the effectiveness of such efforts. Let me explain…

Ok, so my town (A) is surrounded by 4 other towns which do not spray. So, town (A) sprays for one night. There are no mosquito fences or anything keeping the mosquitoes from town (B) from flying over, right? In fact, I’m only .25 miles from town (B). So, I get drenched with ubertoxic insecticides on Tuesday, and should be looking at the same number of mosquitoes by Thursday.

Call me cynical, but this smacks of one of those perfect situations where:
– the public is in a panic
– the public is willing to do anything over nothing
– the solution is ineffective

Am I wrong? Wouldn’t we have to get nightly doses of this mist – and wouldn’t it have to be more than just my little town?

@tom_g We’d have to know more about the geography of your area. Mosquitoes may not travel far enough, but your town may only be killing the adults and not the larvae. Two days later another hatch and you get bit again.

Is there a lot of standing water near you?

Have you talked to your abatement district? What about your county?

The town signed on to some semi-private mysterious organization that manages a few towns in the area, but we can’t talk to them directly.

Re: standing water…It’s New England – standing water is everywhere.