Do any of you remember the “bug” trucks in the 60’s?

Where I grew up, they were called “Foggers” and they sprayed some nasty chemical that ostensibly was effective against mosquitos. They came through every two weeks in the summer months. (which always stuck me as odd because the life cycle of a mosquito is far less than two weeks).

I don’t remember them being particularly effective- I still got mosquito bites all the time. Then (probably late 1960s) they stopped using them. I guess either there was no money or they were so ineffective that there was no reason to do it any more.

I never rode behind the fogger truck – seemed stupid.

Have seen that in films – boys running behind the foggers. I grew up on a farm so we didn’t really have them. As to the parents, I think most parents were fairly oblivious of a lot that went on in those days.

We had them in the 70s. When they came down our street we would run through the fog that had made it’s way to our yards.

Mosquito spray trucks still exist. They do more closely targeted spraying with weaker solutions. Every once in while I see a story in the paper with people asking about the safety.

If you ‘Google mosquito abatement truck’ you can see lots of info and pictures.

They aren’t going away, as long as we have mosquito-spread diseases like West Nile virus and Zika.

Oh yes. We lived on a creek so they came by frequently. They sprayed on the other side of the creek though so I never ran through the fog. Probably would have if I was there.

@janbb completely oblivious. I lived in the country, but not on a farm. We lived on a cul de sac. One of my neighbor kids was giving a mini bike for Christmas. All us kids would take turns riding that mini bike on trails we had created in an empty lot, and THROWING SPEARS AT THE OTHER KIDS! The spears were actually sharpened wooden stakes. What could possibly go wrong?
Those parents are the same ones who actually bought those metal skates that strap on to your shoes. Do you know how damn dangerous those things were?!

@Dutchess_III And we used to play a game called “Territories” where one kid spread their legs apart and the other threw a pocket knife in the ground between them!

There’s somewhere that makes sense between that and helicopter parenting.

The town we lived in before we moved 8 years ago did this every Thursday night during the summer months. I believe they still do this. I closed the windows when they sprayed.

Right @janbb? When I was really little, like 5 or 6, we lived in Florida. Part of our back yard was a man made salt water canal. I barely knew how to swim. But my mom would tell me to take care of my little sister, who was 3 years younger than me, and off we went!

The bug truck was just one of the sounds of summer to me.

We still have them here. They are changing to helicopters this year.