The man in the mosquito-spray truck caught me this evening at dusk. Thank goodness I was just finishing up my walk and was near my house. Usually, he will turn off the spray as he passes me, but tonight, he did not. "They" say the chemical is not harmful to humans and animals, but who the hell knows, except that our back yard feeder still attracts large numbers of birds. The birds are kind of a test, you know, like the canary in the coal mine.
Why is Mr Spray Man spraying on a Saturday night? I thought I was safe, because it was Saturday, and it wasn't even dark yet. I have to admit that the mosquitoes would be fierce around here without the spray, because we've had a lot of rain. Yesterday, it rained all day, and I was out with my umbrella several times for Diana to pee. As soon as the weather clouds up, she wants in the house, but once I had her out on the lead, she was straining to go for a walk. Sorry, girl, I don't think so.
Such is life in a smallish town in south Louisiana.
Photo from Boston.com where I just noticed that the picture bears the caption: "An East Middlesex mosquito truck sprays on Bedford's McIntosh Road, not far from a US wildlife refuge that bans the practice." Yikes! The entire article is about the controversy over spraying in East Middlesex, Massachusetts. And the spray may be harmful to bees, which is not good at all. Oh dear!
On the other hand, we have cases of West Nile fever in Louisiana, though not yet in my area. Hmm.
Wow, that's something I've never heard of.
ReplyDelete[Well, when California had the "Med Fly" crisis in the 70s, there were neighborhoods that got sprayed.]
Yesterday, it rained all day, and I was out with my umbrella several times for Diana to pee.
Has this helped w/ her Pee-roblems? {{{Diana & her pack}}}
JCF, Diana is doing better, because we are doing better by being proactive and not counting entirely on her to let us know when she has to go.
ReplyDeleteYou have West Nile. We have rabies. Several rabid raccoons have been found about 20 miles from here. Scary. Praying we don't have it here. And praying they are right about the spray and you and Diana aren't harmed in any way.
ReplyDeletePiskie, I don't worry a lot for myself, but I do for younger folks and animals, and I'm very sorry that the spray may affect bees.
DeleteI think the citizens of Massachusetts can't begin to appreciate what it is like to live in the wet, hot South or what life would be like without the mosquito truck. My parents actually had malaria as children. One of my earliest memories was the ag planes flying over us just at dawn and dusting us with DDT. Those planes pluse the raising and lowering of the water levels by TVA as a way to starve or drown larvae meant that my generation didn't get it. Of course some birds were nearly made extinct before they figured out why.
ReplyDeleteRo Ford
(Boo Cat)
In our former house, we had sugar cane growing right behind our back yard, and the planes flew over and sprayed the fields. When I saw the planes coming, I'd gather the kids inside for a while, and that was our precaution.
DeleteWhen I was a child, we used Gulf Spray (DDT, I think) liberally for any and all insect pests, spraying it all over inside the house.
I do worry about the effect of mosquito spray on the bees.
Send some of your rain west, please.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was kid and the mosquito truck would come down the street, trailing great thick white clouds of whatever it was, all of us young'uns would run out and gleefully run about right in the midst of it, and follow the truck a block or two, completely enveloped in the cloud, so thick you could hardly see your hand in front of your face.
ReplyDeleteLuckily, nobody ever got sick from it, then or now - please God. Why that is, I have no idea.
I too worry about the bees. No bees, no food, it's just real simple. But does anybody care?
Grandpère was once a beekeeper, and I learned a lot about bees. I'm very much aware of their importance to the food supply.
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