I'm starting to see mosquito treatment signs in people's yards. As a beekeeper, I'd like to urge any of you who are considering treating for mosquitoes to consider several things:
1. The bees (honey bees) and other pollinators are in danger. If you must treat, please choose a provider who follows the rules for pesticide use on the container and who will TREAT AFTER DARK. The bees and other pollinators are flying during daylight and WILL be killed by your mosquito treatment. Spraying after dark gives the bees half a chance that the poison will be all dried up by morning and not kill them. And dark is defined as DARK - not dusk.
2. Try alternate methods before you choose treatment - in your own yard pour out any standing water in plant saucers, in containers of any kind. Put sprigs of rosemary on your barbecue coals (repels mosquitoes). Put mosquito repellent on yourself and your family rather than poison the plants in your yard for the bees.
3. Please think of the bees and our environment before you choose to spray.
4. There are good articles all over the Internet for alternative ways to deal with mosquitoes, such as this one.
One man wrote in response to my post on Next Door that he leaves a little standing water in his yard and floats in the standing water a product sold at the big box stores like Home Depot and Lowes called Mosquito Dunks. I looked for research on them and found this which says they are not dangerous to bees.
She took a video from her car (you can hear NPR in the background). She sent the video to the Pollinator Stewardship Council whose spokesperson, Michele Colopy, was a speaker at our recent GBA meeting in February. Michele helped Julia learn how to report to EPA, the GA department of agriculture, etc.
It's important that we take action as spillage and improper use of pesticides is harmful to our bee population.
POST SCRIPT: Julia went to court. The driver plead guilty. He fixed his truck already and he was fined $1000. Yay for Julia for standing up for the bees (and all of our health).
The "mosquito dunks" that guy was talking about are actually extremely effective, organic, and harmless to anything but mosquitoes and a few other species of flies.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty common in my area for neighborhoods to make a coordinated effort to set up mosquito "traps" by leaving the dunks in any standing water as your previous comment or described. If enough people in an area use them, you can really reduce mosquito populations.
The mosquito dunks work by preventing mosquito larvae from being able to pupate, rather than affecting adult mosquitoes. The best time to use them is in the early Spring, when female mosquitoes are coming out of their winter hideouts and laying their first generation of eggs for the year. If a large proportion of that first generation doesn't make it to adulthood, there will be far fewer adult mosquitoes to breed throughout the season.
When used correctly, the dunks can be so much more safe and effective than spraying!
The dunks only work on larvae. Once the larvae pupate and fly as adults the females will bite. That spray from the truck is for control of flying adult mosquitoes which the dunks don't control. However if you have an area with standing water on you property the dunks will help keep larvae and subsequent adults in check.
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