Mosquito Spraying and Link to Monarch Conference Talks

[Mona Miller]

Cross posting from Dplex-L Email List
http://www.monarchwatch.org/dplex/index.htm

From: Karen Oberhauser
Date: Sat, Jul 21, 2012 at 10:25 AM

Dear Monarch Watchers,

I've published two studies on the impacts of mosquito spraying on monarchs. Most mosquito control district use a variety of different pyrethroids in mosquito abatement efforts, and these can be sprayed as ULV (ultra low volume, or aerosol) treatments, or as barrier treatments. The ULV treatments affect insects as they're flying, and the barrier treatments remain on leaves, providing a barrier to mosquitoes that harbor in wooded or shrubby areas during the day and come out at dawn or dusk. While it is generally thought that the formulations of permethrin used for mosquito control do not pose unreasonable risks to wildlife or the environment (U.S. EPA 2003), our study is one of the few that has examined the nontarget effects of barrier applications of permethrin on foliage-inhabiting arthropods, like monarchs. Both studies showed impacts on monarch larvae AND adults, with leaves from the barrier treatments resulting in higher mortality than control groups up to 3 weeks after application.

The references to these papers are below. The PDFs can be accessed from my website, which is here (click on the publications link): http://fwcb.cfans.umn.edu/oberhauser/

Oberhauser, K.S, S. Manweiler, R. Lelich, M. Blank, R. Batalden, A. De Anda. 2009. Impacts of ULV resmethrin applications on non-target insects. Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association 25:83–93.

Oberhauser, K. S., S. J. Brinda, S. Weaver, R. D. Moon, S. A. Manweiler, N. Read. 2006. Growth and survival of monarch butterflies (Lepidoptera: Danaidae) after exposure to permethrin barrier treatments. Environ. Entomol. 35 (6): 1626-1634.

On another note, many of the ppt and poster presentations from the Minnesota Monarch Meeting are posted on the meeting website: http://www.monarchlab.org/mn2012/Presentations.aspx

--
Karen Oberhauser
Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Conservation Biology
Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology
University of Minnesota
612 624-8706
http://fwcb.cfans.umn.edu/oberhauser/

[Paul Cherubini]

Both studies showed impacts on monarch larvae AND adults, with leaves from the barrier treatments resulting in higher mortality than control groups up to 3 weeks after application.

"Impacts" = what? That butterfly numbers were drastically down in treated neighborhoods for 3 weeks? Or that just some adults and caterpillars that had been monitored by the researchers died. I'd guess the latter.

[blazing star]

From first hand experience, mosquito spraying kills monarch larvae as they eat the contaminated leaves. I now have the truck shut off at my house, and for added protection, I cover a couple plants the night that they're spraying.

Since they sprayed a couple days ago, I now have no lightning bugs in my yard. I posted to the firefly watch site to report this and see what they say.

For those whose neighborhood's spray, it's a good idea to turn off your air conditioning, or close windows, the nights they spray as otherwise, it circulates into your homes.

Lastly, I did not know that they spray Permethrin. This is highly toxic to cats.

In over 10 years time, only 1200 people have died from West Nile in the entire country. More people die in car accidents and from other illnesses. Yet, government decides, on our behalf, they will contaminate our air/land with poison.

[Paul Cherubini]

Lastly, I did not know that they spray Permethrin. This is highly toxic to cats.
In over 10 years time, only 1200 people have died from West Nile in the entire country. More people die in car accidents and from other illnesses. Yet, government decides, on our behalf, they will contaminate our air/land with poison.

No mosquito spray is highly toxic to cats because the dosage used is so low (around 1 ounce per acre of land) Alot more than 1200 people would have died if there had been no mosquito spraying. The sprays are non-toxic to warm blooded animals so cats, birds, squirrels, deer and humans are not harmed. Indeed, the sprays kill the mosquitoes that transmit the west nile virus that kills birds. So the spray saves bird lives as well as human lives. Here's a video featuring the head of ecotoxicology at Bayer CropScience where he explains how "dose makes the poison" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFtuEm9zAhY

[blazing star]

"Alot more than 1200 people would have died if there had been no mosquito spraying."

A lot can be quantified as one tenth of one percent of the population that contracts West Nile Virus. When reviewing the statistics, this is not "a lot" as most people that contract the Virus don't even show symptoms. Others may have flu like symptoms. In rare cases, death occurs. I don't believe that these statistics warrant of mass spraying of poison. Mass, non selective, spraying yields mosquitoes that are immune to the poison all while killing off our beneficial insects.

[Paul Cherubini]

I don't believe that these statistics warrant of mass spraying of poison. Mass, non selective, spraying yields mosquitoes that are immune to the poison all while killing off our beneficial insects.

It's mass spraying of medicine that saves 1000's of human lives. A majority of scientists (and virtually every accident injury attorney) believes the human lives saved are worth the minor, temporary adverse effects the spraying has on the size of beneficial insect populations. That's why virtually every state has a mosquito abatement department. Mosquito immunity to the poison has not been a serious problem. That's why mosquito insecticides that were used 30 years ago are still commonly used today; i.e. permethrin, sumethrin, pyrethin, resmethrin, dibrom, malathion.

Legal liability is one reason for increased mosquito spraying in recent decades. Ditto the reason for increased roadside herbicide spraying. In other words, if people die from mosquito vectored ailments then the public will sue the mosquito control dept, just like they will sue the highway dept if dry weeds along a weed choked roadside catch fire and the fire spreads to their house and burns it down.

[blazing star]

Nothing you've stated effectively dismisses any reasoning I have cited for being on the no spray list.

[Mona Miller]

Paul claims that he cares about Monarch butterflies. If he cares he would be trying to stop all the spraying, which is killing Monarch butterflies, other beneficial insects, and us.

[Paul Cherubini]

If he cares he would be trying to stop all the spraying, which is killing Monarch butterflies, other beneficial insects, and us.

17 people and counting have died from mosquito bites in Texas this year:
http://news.yahoo.com/west-nile-virus-k ... 47585.html

Timely mosquito spraying could have saved some of those lives. I've noticed the anti-mosquito spray camp of people never specify how many people must die per month or year before they would agree the spraying is justified? 50 human deaths per 1,000,000 people per year? 500 deaths? 5,000? 500,000?

[Mona Miller]

Most of the people who die are older. How many people of all ages are getting cancer and dying from mosquito spraying? How many children are getting learning disabilities from the spray?

People need to learn how to prevent getting bitten, not spray the heck out of our environment and kill every thing that flies or crawls just to kill a few mosquitoes, which will eventually become immune to the spray any way.

What do you do to prevent getting bitten by mosquitoes and I'm not talking about spraying your yard?

[Paul Cherubini]

How many people of all ages are getting cancer and dying from mosquito spraying? How many children are getting learning disabilities from the spray?

The mosquito sprays are incapable of causing cancer or learning disabilities. In the 50's and 60's when the broadcast use of DDT for mosquitoes in tropical areas of the world (including Florida) collectively saved millions of lives via preventing malaria and similar fatal diseases, there was no surge in cancer or learning disabilities.

[Paul Cherubini]

Folks on dplex-l seems to think the city of Dallas, TX has abandoned mosquito spraying. I guess they havn't read todays news:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/dall ... e-17012595