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Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 2:50:36 PM
Subject: RE: Dirty Decade Report
Subject: RE: Dirty Decade Report
Lorraine,
I enjoyed our discussion on
the pesticides used by our district.
You might find the following websites interesting/helpful:
http://www.panna.org/ Pesticide Action Network
http://www.beyondpesticides.org/ They have a section on mosquito management for west nile virus that I think we follow pretty well at:
http://www.stopwestnilesprayingnow.org/index.html This group is against the adulticide treatments done by the Sacramento/Yolo mosquito and vector control district which is run by David Brown, a friend of mine.
I know he would prefer to do larvicidal treatments but there comes a time during an epidemic when broader treatments are called for to save lives. What are the alternatives for mosquito control districts? If we don’t do wide spread adulticiding treatments during a west nile virus outbreak and people die how does that compare with doing the treatments and possibly harming people with chemical sensitivities?
We have been extremely fortunate in Alameda County to have avoided having to use truck mounted foggers in residential neighborhoods to control mosquitoes. Even though all of the counties that border Alameda County have had multiple human cases of West Nile Virus and some deaths, we have not had a single, locally acquired, human case of West Nile Virus.
I always welcome questions regarding our control program from interested individuals.
John R. Rusmisel
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 12:01:44 PM
Subject: RE: [BayCanaryGrapevine] Digest Number 60
Lorraine,
After reading the response, I would say that we don’t “push” DEET. In fact, we have been showing numerous alternatives to DEET in our power point presentations that we have been giving throughout the county. There are several good alternatives including a new material that will soon be tested in California.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/07/0726_050726_deet.html This article mentions Picaridin and lemon eucalyptus oil which are good alternatives. There is also another product called bite blocker which is being used by some people – it is soybean based. http://www.biteblocker.com/intro.html
While we have never used much adulticides in the past, our website (control program) does mention the use of Scourge as the product we would use. That has been changed to Pyrenone 25-5 for the simple reason that it
does have less PBO in it than other pesticides registered to control adult mosquitoes. This year we have used no (zero) adulticides. Last year we used .1 ounce of pyrenone to calibrate the equipment.
For storm drain and catch basin treatments we use both solid and liquid formulations of bacteria and Altosid (chemical name methoprene s). We also on occasion use Golden bear oil but this is more and more infrequent in use and is part of an integrated pest management (IPM) program that is geared more to reducing the possibility of insecticide resistance in the mosquitoes than for daily use. During the rainy season (November – April) we don’t actively target stormdrains
because they are being flushed out regularly. In the dry season the drains don’t flow (except in areas where people over water their lawns or leave water flowing into the gutter while washing their cars) which is why they produce so many mosquitoes. I don’t know why anyone would care whether the Bti is added to a stormdrain in a liquid or solid material. We have been using more Water Soluble Packet (WSP) formulations because it is a “cleaner” method of delivering the proper dosage to a basin.
I am attaching a study done a couple of years ago that looked at the risk of human exposure to pesticides used for WNV mosquito control. It is a little (ok – a lot) on the dry side but
it is interesting. I doubt if people with chemical sensitivities will agree with the conclusions.
Slide from our West Nile information presentations – I use the lemon eucalyptus oil regularly when I am in the sierras. DEET is a plasticizer that eats fly fishing lines so I don’t use it.
We use Bti and Bacillus sphaericus for bacterial control. Growth hormone = Altosid = Methoprene s. Oil is GB 1111 or Goldenbear oil.
For what its worth . . . the materials we use are often less toxic than the alternatives that others suggest we use.
John R. Rusmisel
District
Manager
Alameda County Mosquito Abatement District
(510) 783-7744 x 17
(510) 783-3903 FAX
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