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  • From: Misha Gale-Sinex <mgs2369@attbi.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] Re: Mosquito spraying
  • Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 14:42:42 -0800

Howdy, all--

Claude wrote regarding his county's plan to spray for "mosquito control" (lovely fantasy, that) to provide tourists the illusion that they aren't visiting part of a planet with living ecosystems:

Ya'all have any good ammo/info web sites you could provide for ths upcoming
battle please ?

I'm looking for
1. reasons why spraying is a bad idea and
2. Organic alternatives to "controlling" the mosquito population...

I'd go first thing pronto to the New York City Greens' No Spray Coalition. These folks have been 100% down for years with the citizen battle against the City's policy of responding to a few dozen cases of West Nile Virus by widespread spraying of malathion, resmethrin, sumithrin, permethrin, and piperonyl butoxide from helicopters and on the ground.

Their Web site is a bit of a mish-mosh, but there's a wealth of information there on their organizing, activism, and sundry research.
http://www.nospray.org

No Spray Coalition Hotline
718-670-7110
P.O. Box 334, Peck Slip Station, New York, NY 10272-0334
List server: sprayno@yahoogroups.com

Mitchel Cohen is the contact, same phone as the coalition.
E-mail: mitchelcohen@mindspring.com

I communicated with Mitchel about this in the late 90s and into 2000. At the time I was growing food in Wisconsin and working as the communications director for the UW-Madison's sustainable ag research center. I've done pro bono research for chemically injured and disabled people since the 80s. At the time of the West Nile "outbreak" some enlightening research information was coming out of Madison regarding the interactive effects of pesticides and other chemicals on biological systems at very low doses (drinking water concentrations, PPBs). Let me know if you want to know more about that.


Second, try PANNA
http://www.panna.org

Go to the search engine (on the tabbed box, top left of home page), and search their archives on

mosquito control
the names of particular pesticides proposed for use by your county
West Nile
malaria

For instance, PANNA Resource Pointer #181 (10/98) focused on malaria
control...
http://www.igc.org/panna/resources/panups/panup_19981001-rp181.dv.html


Third, be aware of the New Jersey Department of Health's Right to Know Hazardous Substance Fact Sheets:
http://www.state.nj.us/health/eoh/rtkweb/rtkhsfs.htm

This is an outstanding resource, and I'm kind of surprised it's still up on the Internet, for free. I've used it for years to educate myself on the demonstrated effects of various substances, as well as the chemistry of various substances. Note that each fact sheet is cross referenced to the CAS and DOT databases.


Fourth, know that you are entitled by law to ask for, and receive, MSDSs (Material Safety Data Sheets) for any product used in your environments. The cleaning chemicals used in your office. The toner in your company's photocopier. The wall-mounted stinkum in the public restroom designed to help people deny (?) what people are doing in restrooms. The pesticides sprayed in your apartment complex, your park, the golf course down the street, or the trees over your head. The carpet glue under your feet.

MSDSs detail the contents of the product, the chemical composition, etc. HOWEVER, be aware that these sheets are produced *by the manufacturer* of the substance. Once upon a time (late 80s, early 90s) they actually contained good information about the products' contents, and the health effects of those. But over the years, as manufacturers started distancing themselves from burgeoining knowledge about the health effects of industrial chemicals, they've sanitized MSDSs till they contain pretty much only a litany of chemical properties (boiling point, freezing point, flashpoint, etc.) and a few vague, imprecise terms like "not toxic to fish and wildlife." ("Toxicity" as defined by classical toxicology is not a measure of overall effects; it's a measure of how many tested organisms were killed by what concentration of the substance.) Also, more and more, corporations are getting away with withholding information on the grounds that, for instance, chemical composition of a particular product is proprietary, or a trade secret.


Claude, one of the things to bear in mind is that mosquitos *can be* disease vectors. It takes very little tinkering with existing ecosystems to make that happen, and outbreaks can appear at any moment in areas where that tinkering is constant and widespread.

So I'd recommend you not push that perspective too hard--"not because they pose any real health hazard." I get your point. But the minute you get this perspective out, someone in county, state, or other government will come out and demonstrate that, oh look, we've found a case of West Nile or some other mosquito-borne illness. Aieeee! And those stupid environmentalists said these hideous Satanic flying beasts were SAFE!!!

The point, I think, is to focus on the issue that mosquito "control" efforts generally do nothing other than harm living creatures and ecosystems while creating super-resistant mosquitos who can and will act as vectors later on. This is one of the potential horrors of human-induced climate change. It's pretty clear that epidemiological bands of tropical diseases are spreading north and south as winters become less severe. Between that and strategies that foster super-resistance...well, I don't need to close the equation in this company.

Another teachable issue is how existing human practices *foster* mosquito populations by

--destroying native prey species (in North America, bats, dragonflies and their nymphs, nighthawks, damselflies and their nymphs, daddy-long-legs, water beetles, caddisfly larvae, mayfly larvae) and their habitat.

--creating stagnant pools of water (old tires, ditches, other crap).

--not understanding the five-stage life cycle of mosquitos, and failing to take actions that can increase predation and reduce mosquito success at all five stages (people tend to think only in terms of destroying adult mosquitos, which of course is what the pesticide companies' marketing departments have taught everyone).

By the way, it's a common misconception that martins and swallows are good mosquito eaters. Think about it. Adult mosquitos (female) mostly come out at night. Martins and swallows are asleep then. Bats and nighthawks are your folks for that job. But even more effective is to encourage predation of mosquitos *before* the adult stage, and limit their habitat.

Finally, the thing I always recommend to folks approaching an education campaign or project like it sounds you're facing, is:

Don't go into it as a "battle," even though it's likely to be.

Approach this as an intensely teachable moment, one that will help galvanize and educate people in the community. While you're letting folks know about potential threats to health, and best alternatives, while hammering out understanding and agreements, make sure you do whatever you can to keep or inject a sense of healthy, centered, appropriate levity, if not humor. It makes the issue less threatening to folks, making it easier for them to get on board. You will be surprised, I'll bet, by how many people in the community already have concerns about things like super-resistant insects, pesticide use, children's health, asthma, etc. And what makes the county fathers think that tourists would want to visit a place that's been pesticide-saturated for their "protection"?

It's *so* easy to get sucked into bitter power struggles, anger-fests, and other soul-sapping dysfunctions when dealing with such primal issues as the right of some people to destroy life for cosmetic reasons. I speak as somebody who was nearly done in by diazinon in the mid-80s, btw. It's hard for me to have a sense of humor about this issue...but when I manage it, I find it's far more powerful than even the volcano of righteous-babe indignation gushing up from my soul.

In many communities in the Upper Midwest, in the summer, tourists aren't offered the illusion of cavorting in mosquito-free splendor in the northwoods. No, mosquitos are the size of birds, and rule the place three months a year. Period. However, tourists have ample chances to attend local "Mosquito Days" festivals, or to purchase tiny "mosquito traps," mosquito-spotting field guides, special commemorative calomine lotion, and other kitschy souvenirs, which help them laugh while swatting and trying not to scratch. It's also good for local markets in essential-oil-based repellents, citronella candles, netting hats, and other time-honored methods for living with that which it is folly to assume we can live without.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.


peace
misha

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michele Gale-Sinex
Olympia, WA

Home office: 360-459-5683
Home office fax: Same as above, phone first for enabling
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As crude a weapon as the cave man's club, the chemical
barrage has been hurled against the fabric of life. --Rachel Carson




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