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seagrovegirl

Beach Fanatic
Feb 9, 2008
3,885
454
Historic Old Point Washington
Considering all the rain we have had this summer it amazes me that we don't have more mosquitos. Obviously, the spraying is working as well as the larvicide application. My home is near a swamp and the bayou. While in the Florida Keys years ago, at sunset we were swarmed by mosquitos and we ran in the house covered in them. We swatted them off and then they were with us in the house. It was terrible. I can only imagine what S. Walton would be like without mosquito control. Hopefully a non chemical/toxic, feasible application will be made available one day, but in the meantime I am grateful for what we have. There is always room for improvement and healthy debate. Lets keep the drama out of it and work together.
 

seagrovegirl

Beach Fanatic
Feb 9, 2008
3,885
454
Historic Old Point Washington
I wish we had mosquito trucks here in GA. My husband is a mosquito magnet -- he can't walk from the house to the car without getting lots of bites which turn into a painful rash. He just bought a dry repellant for his skin that is not annoying because it is not greasy and is odorless.

BTW I just found out that the current theory on our niece's flesh-eating disease is that she got a bunch of mosquito bites, got a rash from the bites, and somehow that turned into this disease. Dunno if the mosquitos were carrying the bacteria or if she went for a swim at one of the parks in the Wisconsin River and got the bacteria via her rash. I also don't know if they have mosquito trucks in Wausau. I know that they did (in Madison) when hubby was a kid.
 

ShallowsNole

Beach Fanatic
Jun 22, 2005
4,292
849
Pt Washington
I vaguely remember South Walton, specifically Point Washington, before Mosquito Control. I don't want to go back there, and trust me, neither do you.
 

Andy A

Beach Fanatic
Feb 28, 2007
4,389
1,738
Blue Mountain Beach
Over education is sometimes a deterrent to common sense.
 

Billie

Beach Comber
Jul 13, 2007
30
4
This is real responsible mosquito control. This what South Walton and the state of Florida should be doing.

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=7603

Here are a few excerpts:

(Beyond Pesticides, June 27, 2012) One county in New Jersey is getting serious about combating mosquitoes this season. Instead of relying on pesticide spraying, which has been shown to not be effective, the Cape May County Department of Mosquito Control is employing 10,000 tiny shrimp-like crustaceans that will eat their way through mosquito larvae in the county’s swamps, roadside ditches and small pools.
The latest weapon in the battle against mosquitoes is barely visible. The crustaceans, known as copepods, are cousins to crayfish and water fleas, and do not get much bigger than two millimeters. They are voracious predators of mosquito larvae. New Jersey recently delivered 10,000 of the tiny shrimp-like crustaceans to Cape May County

Least-Toxic and Cost-Effective
Reducing the use of pesticides is one of the big selling points. Copepods are natural and native to New Jersey, though this is the farthest north they have ever been used for mosquito control. New Orleans was the first to use copepods, and it taught New Jersey its system of growing them in a laboratory. New Jersey is only the second state to use them. They are also inexpensive to produce at the state Department of Agriculture’s Philip Alampi Beneficial Insect Rearing Laboratory in West Trenton. It takes about six weeks to make a batch using distilled water and wheat seed as a medium, feeding them paramecium.
Pesticide spraying for mosquito management is widely considered by experts to be the least effective and most risky response to this important public health concern. Pesticides typically used in mosquito spray programs are synthetic pyrethroids and in some cases organophosphates, both of which are associated with a host of adverse health effects, including neurological disorders and cancers. The frequency of pesticide applications required for aerial applications to be effective, combined with the public health risk caused as a result of these applications, makes aerial mosquito spraying campaigns ineffective both in terms of cost and public safety. In fact, the CDC and many local mosquito abatement districts emphasize public education and the control of larval populations as the first line of defense against mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases. Additionally, there is no credible evidence that spraying pesticides used to kill adult mosquitoes reduce or prevent mosquito-borne incidents or illnesses.



 
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