There are other very effective and MUCH safer ant killers on the market, including some that qualify as 'organic'. I assuming that, given your location, they are trying to get rid of fire ants, a species that really shouldn't be allowed to prosper in a playground.

Write to your HOA and inform them that they are using this product in a manner not consistant with the label (which is against Federal law), by applying it in a public park and where it can come into contact with people (especially children!) and pets. Acephate is a cholinesterase inhibitor, for cryin' out loud.

Then, offer to send them a list of products they can use instead. Email me if you wish....I can hook you up with some good information.

lou midlothian tx, I have to believe that at least one person on the Board or its vendor list is aware of environmental issues.
If not, ballots need to be cast.
I have been involved in some HOA issues and enjoyed a ringside seat on others. My favorite episode concerns the niece of my wife who was 'cited' for painting the front doors of her house "Cobalt Blue". (For the record, that would not be my choice for my front door). One year later, the paint job endures, her husband is on the board and the community is vibrantly progressive.
All achieved democratically, in the best American tradition.

Ron,

I believe that they are plainly ignorant on that stuff. I had volunteered to take care of the park many times but I never hear back from HOA. I had be taking care of it prior to that current HOA board because nobody was really doing anything with the park and I planted 14 trees there myself (previous HOA board asked me to plant them) I would have tried to get on the HOA board but my wife said no. This time, I'm going to ignore my wife and get on the board. She may understand this time though. She doesn't like the fact that HOA is applying poison at the park. Anyway, you'd think after all the work I did at the park, they'd appreciate my offer to continue to look after the park but noooooo.... They decided they want to poison the park! I don't think the president likes the trees at the park. He insisted on watering the park 3 times a week for 20 minutes round year just because the guy (looks like a hippie who had just smoked a joint before repairing sprinkler system) who repaired the sprinkler system said so even though I provided all the info to prove that guy wrong! Of course, I changed the programming on the sprinkler system secretly. Actually, it has been turned off. I only turn it on whenever the park needs it. Usually once a month of all night watering that worked much better where trees actually grew (we're in drought again and most of neighbors' trees did not grow much due to lack of understanding how deep watering really work; I even explained that to HOA but they just ignored my advice anyway). Rest of month, it rained a bit a few times to keep grass satisfied. Crazy...

Turns out that they are plainly total ignorant. No matter how much info I provided them, they except for one decided to go ahead and hire a chem lawn company to come out and apply chemicals for few weeds and pests starting monday. They also said that Topchoice pesticide would be apply next weekend. They apparently never bothered to look into how pesticide free parks got it down across the nation that I had told them about. They are trying to move as fast as possible to get it done so it makes you think something is fishy.