Well, my village fogged on the 18th of June. And I must say, I have noticed quite a drop in the numbers of mosquitoes. We have had a very, very wet spring, with the Des Plaines river going out of it's banks and inundating towns. Ideal mosquito breeding habitat. We have been overwhelmed with mosquitoes the last week. I can't help but wonder the effect of the spray on beneficial insects, and barn swallows, and bats, etc....everything is connected. But since West Nile is an issue here.....

yes malathion is common spray for mosquitoes. and it can and does indescriminately kill other insects, flies, spiders, lice - basically the sucking insects. it can kill fish and birds too if the dose is high. one thing that is good about malathion is it is an organophosphate that does degrade over time and is not persistent in the environment. normally a malathion spray is used only for areas with problems with an excessive number of adult mosquitos - to use it weekly is overkill. i think it would be safe to say that if you reduce the insect population you will see reduced bird populations for those birds that feed on insects.
i have worked for mosquito control company in the past. and weekly applications of larvaecide were normal. larvae treatments are bacterial treatment to breeding areas, are non-toxic to other creatures, and much more effective at controlling mosquitos than the adult spray treatments. malathion spray to treat adults should only be done when warranted by the numbers of adults that were caught in monitoring traps or an excessive number of complaints.

Thanks Joepyeweed :)

I thought there was some kind of Larvae treatment they could be doing but wasn't positive...the sources I checked out said foggers really were only good for adults.....I only seen 1 or 2 skeeter before this fogging regime even started and we live clear out in the country surrounded by wheat fields and cattle...we are lucky to get much rain between June and September..the annual percipitation average runs about 11-17 inches. Standing water is here one day and gone the next or most times not at all.
I have lived in Eastern WA since 1994 with the exception of a few months one time and again almost a year another...we've never had that many mosquitoes uless you are out at a lake up in the woods somewhere. It's just crazy to be fogging usually mosquitoe free areas every week for the whole season!! IF its the waist hight grassy-weedy ditches along the highways they should be getting the state to keep'em mowed.....

Enough of my ranting...it just erks me to death :(

Vera

In St. Tammany Parish, La, where they fog and do arial spraying regularly (Malathion), the bird populations have dropped dramatically. I hardly ever see butterflies, dragonflies, or damselflies, either. There used to be tons of purple martins - hardly any these day.

I moved 3 months ago to nearby Washington parish, where the spraying is not conducted. It's wonderful to see butterflies again, and dragonflies and damselflies, and purple martins. Interestingly enough, I don't see any mosquitoes here, either -- wonder if St. Tammany has, for years, killed so many of the beneficial bugs & creatures, that they've contributed to their own mosquitoe problem.

Several times there have been short, temporary outbreaks of mosquitoes in these last 3 months in Washington Parish, when there was a lot of standing water. I'd see a lot of purple martins and barn swallows at that time, obviously feeding on mosquitos, then the mosquitoes would be gone.

I'm really worried about the spraying.

Leslie

West Nile will kill way more birds than the overly aggressive spray program will if this virus is spreading in your area.

Animals that are predaceous on mosquitoes have no or little effect on populations. Weather in conjunction with breeding habitat is what determines the number of Mosquitoes.