Okay, where to begin....
1. Continuing to do something just because you have been doing it for thousands of years is ludicrous. We evolve. My father died two months ago from lung cancer. He refused to quit smoking because he has been a successful smoker for 55 years, why stop now? His grandfather's grandfather smoked and they didn't get lung cancer. What an insane philosophy!
We no longer use lead paint even though our mothers were all cradled to sleep in bed made of wood and painted with lead paint. We want better for our children. We don't want to risk what we now know are the dangers associated with lead. When we discovered that asbestos caused horrible cancers, we pulled it out of our schools (or covered it up). Even though our parents attended schools filled to the Rim with Brim of asbestos. We want better for our kids. We don't want to run the risk.
Deet. I can go on for days about Deet. My grandmother had a circulation issue, but in her old age she thought those little tingles she was feeling in her legs came from fleas. So she sprayed herself with deet. She slept in it. She was never without her dang deet pump. She died of cirrhosis of the liver. She had never drank a drop of alcohol in her life. A few years later they took the concentrated deet pump off the market. She is my "box of evidence." I visit her at Black Creek cemetery.
In all of your "research" about this area. Pull up some history on Agent Orange. Eglin property near Portland was a dumping ground for the stuff. If you want proof. Go through your boxes and find the name Gordon Williams, he was with NWMC. He was also privy to the dumping of Agent Orange on Eglin. (Of course I am not saying that the NWMC had anything to do with it, just that he worked there for some time and seeing that you have a privy to files at Mosquito control, you might wanna look him up). At one point in the mid 80's I heard a statistic that Walton County had an extremely high rate of brain cancer per/capita. I didn't need to research it further. My evidence is lying beside Grandma. Her 19 year old son, raised near the Eglin reservation in Portland died of brain cancer. We no longer use agent orange because we don't want to run the risk.
2. I call BS on your "evidence". Show me facts and numbers on the amount of fireflies you see every year here compared to how many we saw as children. Yes, we are the same age (ish). When you show it to me, I will counter it with the actual number of bug species that are eradicated everyday. SPECIES not individual bugs. My step-daughter, the smarty at UF is in entomology and she says at least 5. When we start efin with the top of the food chain, we directly effect the bottom.
3. Define "Problem".
4. Garlic has never caused cancer or death...just really bad breath. I have altoids.
5. Not been bit yet and they are on their way out. I also heard that they don't have them in Sarasota. As a licensed real estate agent I will be glad to sell you something near the beach there.
I still say, what does that have to do with that? My mother died of lung cancer, she never smoked, dad died of a heart attack, and he smoked for many years! I'm sorry about your father, I know it's difficult. Sometimes they just give up on life, and really don't want to live in pain anymore.
Garlic came from someone else?s solution.
I was born and raised here in South Walton; really don't want to live anywhere else. I am tired of those who do not understand our ways, and customs, degrading us because of them. We do have a reason for what we do, and I, for one, will not back down just because someone doesn't understand, and has a basic disdain for our life!
There was a time here in South Walton that the insect problem was so bad, even cattle couldn't survive! The tireless efforts of the Mosquito control since 1964 has created the relative comfort we have now. You would think that with the main source of our current industry tourist related, serious efforts would be made to ensure some kind of tranquility! Welcome to Northwest Florida! Land of bugs and snakes! Oh, by the way, we also have lots of other things too, Black Widow, Brown Recluse, Scorpions...!
