18 August 2024
Pittsburgh is hotter and wetter than regular this yr. It’s a mix that’s excellent for breeding mosquitoes and spreading West Nile Virus (WNV), an sickness that has few or no signs in 80% of infections and a <0.1% probability of loss of life.
Final week I discovered from PublicSource that WNV in Allegheny County has prompted the Well being Division (ACHD) to fog neighborhoods the place WNV is detected in grownup mosquitoes. Sadly the weapon they use is a broad spectrum bomb slightly than a bullet aimed solely at mosquitoes. PublicSource examines the difficulty: Allegheny County ramps up mosquito management. May it hurt native ecosystems?
The fogging is finished at nightfall and evening by a pickup truck with a dispersal (fogging) unit utilizing insecticide Zenivex E20 (lively ingredient etofenprox). I don’t have photographs of ACHD’s vehicles — this mosquito management truck is in Cuba, not in Allegheny County — however the photograph provides you an thought of what fogging seems to be like. See photographs of native fogging right here within the PublicSouce article.
Right here’s what the insecticide is and what it kills:
Etofenprox is a pyrethroid spinoff which disturbs insect nervous methods following direct contact or ingestion. It’s lively towards a broad spectrum of pests together with Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants), Diptera (flies and mosquitoes), Hemiptera (cicadas, aphids, leafhoppers, mattress bugs, defend bugs), Coleoptera (beetles), and Thysanoptera (thrips).
The fogging creates a miniature insect apocalypse for small night-flying bugs touched by the insecticide. This ripples up the meals chain to the vegetation, birds and animals that depend on them. One in all them is my spark chicken, the widespread nighthawk. PublicSource factors out:
A chicken conservation advocate agreed that nighttime pollinators might be affected, which may have ripple results in chicken populations, such because the widespread nighthawks that feed after nightfall.
“Even when these merchandise are used with the most effective intentions … in a extremely focused method, they definitely do have the potential to have an effect on non-target invertebrates,” stated Hardy Kern, director of presidency relations of the birds and pesticides marketing campaign on the American Chook Conservancy. “And these non-target invertebrates are actually essential meals sources for birds.”
— PublicSource: Allegheny County ramps up mosquito management. May it hurt native ecosystems?
Amidst the controversy PublicSource factors out:
The one consensus? The county wouldn’t have to spray as a lot if extra folks knew preserve mosquitoes from breeding close to their properties.
— PublicSource: Allegheny County ramps up mosquito management. May it hurt native ecosystems?
And that’s the place you are available in. Mosquitoes breed in stagnant water. When you have water standing in your yard mosquitoes will breed there — even in a bottle cap. Dump out the standing water to kill the larvae. Dump out deserted tires!
Right here’s stop mosquitoes from breeding in your yard.
BIG TAKEAWAY!
If you’re being bitten by mosquitoes it’s probably that these mosquitoes are being produced in your property. Mosquitoes don’t wish to journey very far. They’re very weak fliers, and if they will discover all of the issues that they should survive in your property that’s the place they are going to start and finish their life cycle.
— quote from PA DEP Video: Assist Stop Mosquitoes from Breeding
p.s. Etofenprox is a non-persistant chemical with “low toxicity to people and mammals” (see Hazards to People and Home Animals per Wikipedia). Each ACHD spray effort is preceded by an ACHD press launch that lists the neighborhoods to be fogged. ACHD’s press launch for the week of 19-23 August (click on right here) consists of Leetsdale, Edgeworth, Sewickley, Glen Osborne, and 10 metropolis neighborhoods.
p.p.s Right here’s the place West Nile Virus is in PA as of 18 Aug 2024
