18 August 2024
Pittsburgh is hotter and wetter than regular this 12 months. It’s a mixture 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% likelihood of dying.
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 reasonably than a bullet aimed solely at mosquitoes. PublicSource examines the problem: Allegheny County ramps up mosquito management. May it hurt native ecosystems?
The fogging is completed at nightfall and evening by a pickup truck with a dispersal (fogging) unit utilizing insecticide Zenivex E20 (lively ingredient etofenprox). I don’t have pictures of ACHD’s vehicles — this mosquito management truck is in Cuba, not in Allegheny County — however the picture offers you an thought of what fogging seems like. See pictures 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 programs following direct contact or ingestion. It’s lively in opposition to 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 crops, birds and animals that depend on them. Certainly one of them is my spark hen, the widespread nighthawk. PublicSource factors out:
A hen conservation advocate agreed that nighttime pollinators may very well be affected, which might have ripple results in hen populations, such because the widespread nighthawks that feed after nightfall.
“Even when these merchandise are used with one of the best intentions … in a extremely focused method, they actually 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 Chicken Conservancy. “And these non-target invertebrates are actually vital 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 individuals knew maintain 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’ve got 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 forestall mosquitoes from breeding in your yard.
BIG TAKEAWAY!
If you’re being bitten by mosquitoes it’s most definitely 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’ll discover all of the issues that they should survive in your property that’s the place they’ll 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
