Chemical spraying against mosquitoes

[ChuckP]

Bifenthran is commonly used here in the states by companies like Mosquito Squad or us back when we were licensed.....

 

[deepsea21]

Ah, good old (more like bad old) DDT and let's not forget Chlordane. My mother has a stash of both she's saved for decades. Mix a little of that in some water and spray it around your home you won't see a bug for YEARS. I believe it was DDT that 25 years ago just about wiped out many birds of prey such as Osprey and Bald Eagles.

 

[mstevens]

DDT is pretty safe for humans, and banning it is likely to have led to many preventable deaths. There are definite issues with it (or any insecticide), but some of the evidence cited by Rachel Carson in support of an effect on raptors was a dentist in Florida who was pretty sure he saw fewer of them along a particular stretch of road. That's not very good evidence on which to base a ban. Mosquito-borne illnesses have killed a massive number of our species over time. Anything we use to kill mosquitoes is going to have risks and cause real-world problems, but not using effective tools to kill them is going to get people killed.

 

[deepsea21]

DDT is pretty safe for humans, and banning it is likely to have led to many preventable deaths. There are definite issues with it (or any insecticide), but some of the evidence cited by Rachel Carson in support of an effect on raptors was a dentist in Florida who was pretty sure he saw fewer of them along a particular stretch of road. That's not very good evidence on which to base a ban. Mosquito-borne illnesses have killed a massive number of our species over time. Anything we use to kill mosquitoes is going to have risks and cause real-world problems, but not using effective tools to kill them is going to get people killed.

I will go one further... NOT using truly effective insecticides to control mosquitoes simply leads to homeowners and independent business operators taking it into their own hands. They purchase whatever is available over the counter or from a "friend" who has access to the good stuff and if a tablespoon added to a gallon is good, a 1/4 cup added to a gallon must be better and the environment ends up having a higher volume of toxic pesticides used than we had when municipalities used the stuff that worked for the benefit of the entire community. I don't enjoy spraying or spreading pesticide but at the end of the day if it comes down to treating my area to kill ticks or going green and ending up with Lyme disease I'm gonna spray and spread. In regions with poor or no healthcare where mosquitoes spread deadly diseases that kill millions of people a year who are we to sit back in the developed world and say, "You shouldn't use that... it may harm your frogs and birds".

The greatest failure of the World Health Organization for decades has been its failure to develop a Malaria vaccine as malaria is the #1 killer of millions throughout tropical world. Why has a vaccine never been developed? Because there is no $ in it. No one wants to spend $ developing a vaccine for people, populations (and governments) that can't afford it. In my opinion the WHO is an absolute joke and we all saw just what it is all about with that ridiculous Zika virus that caused billions of dollars to change hands and end up in who knows whose pockets while to this day there is not a single scientific study that has proven Zika leads to birth defects or even presents a minor threat to the general population (the absolute opposite of Malaria).

 

[kelemvor]

Mmmm. DDT. Used to spray it in liquid form on the open cab tractor. We used to spray thistle with round up from the backs of horses. Might as well have bathed in it. If diluted was good, full strength must be better. I expect that's why round-up is no longer sold in it's chemically "pure" form.

It wasn't THAT long ago it was used. We used to put it on the lawnmower muffler so that the heated muffler would vaporize it and kill skeets while we mowed the lawn. Pity that it's no longer available.

Mmmm. DDT. Used to spray it in liquid form on the open cab tractor. We used to spray thistle with round up from the backs of horses. Might as well have bathed in it. If diluted was good, full strength must be better. I expect that's why round-up is no longer sold in it's chemically "pure" form.

You can get 50% roundup (glyphosate) on Amazon for far cheaper than the more watered down stuff that's sold at home depot/lowes. I think I paid $75 for 2.5 gallons of it. At that concentration and size it's practically a lifetime supply.


I don't know what they're spraying in Coz but they do spray for mosquitoes in Largo, FL as well. Big trucks drive around spraying skeet mist in the mornings. Possibly different chemicals than what Mexico is using. I'm sure I could go on the city's website and look it up if I were less lazy.

 

[deepsea21]

You can get 50% roundup (glyphosate) on Amazon for far cheaper than the more watered down stuff that's sold at home depot/lowes. I think I paid $75 for 2.5 gallons of it. At that concentration and size it's practically a lifetime supply.

This is exactly what I am talking about... Roundup is just glyphosate under a brand name. Period. I probably own the same $75, 2.5 Gallons you do that you purchased at Lowes or HD under the generic name. That 2.5 gallons will last me YEARS. People don't understand how the herbicide works and they think if they mix a "hot dose" they are going to have better results but that isn't the case and they are just using more herbicide, wasting more $, and polluting more than they need to. Glyphosate is sprayed on and absorbed by the leaves of vegetation that then works it's way down and kills the roots and all. It takes about 2-weeks to see ultimate killing and it doesn't matter if you used the recommended mix or a stronger mix - it still takes just the same amount of time to kill the vegetation no matter how "Hot" of a mix one uses. As such people over-pollute with herbicides just as they do with pesticides. More isn't more better - it's just a waste of $ and more chemicals added to the environment than is necessary.

 

[ggunn]

The greatest failure of the World Health Organization for decades has been its failure to develop a Malaria vaccine as malaria is the #1 killer of millions throughout tropical world. Why has a vaccine never been developed? Because there is no $ in it.

Zika is a virus but malaria is a protozoan parasite. I'm no expert on epidemiology, but I don't know that a vaccine is possible against malaria.

 

[kmarks]

Zika is a virus but malaria is a protozoan parasite. I'm no expert on epidemiology, but I don't know that a vaccine is possible against malaria.

What Gordon said.

And there is research aplenty into treating and reducing malaria, including improving antimalarials, reducing the ability of the local mosquito populations to carry the oocysts and sporozoites, and arresting the stages in human liver and blood cells. It's just not being done by for profit pharma companies. That's why we need to be funding things like the CDC and supporting private foundations like the Gates Foundation.

 

[kelemvor]

There is a malaria vaccine. It "has a relatively low efficacy (26–50%)" but it exists.

Malaria vaccine - Wikipedia

That doesn't really help answer Hatul's question about what it is they're spraying in Coz.

 

[BRT]

This is exactly what I am talking about... Roundup is just glyphosate under a brand name. Period. I probably own the same $75, 2.5 Gallons you do that you purchased at Lowes or HD under the generic name. That 2.5 gallons will last me YEARS. People don't understand how the herbicide works and they think if they mix a "hot dose" they are going to have better results but that isn't the case and they are just using more herbicide, wasting more $, and polluting more than they need to. Glyphosate is sprayed on and absorbed by the leaves of vegetation that then works it's way down and kills the roots and all. It takes about 2-weeks to see ultimate killing and it doesn't matter if you used the recommended mix or a stronger mix - it still takes just the same amount of time to kill the vegetation no matter how "Hot" of a mix one uses. As such people over-pollute with herbicides just as they do with pesticides. More isn't more better - it's just a waste of $ and more chemicals added to the environment than is necessary.

More is not better but Glyphosate works better at higher concentrations.