Mastodawn

Colin Purrington Jul 15, 2023

My neighbor just had her property fogged by Mosquito Shield, one of those outfits that uses gasoline-powered foggers to coat foliage with insecticides every few weeks. I can always smell it, which means that the chemicals have drifted into my yard and are now killing my insects. Makes my blood boil. Here's my post about pyrethroid sprays in case you can share with friends who are considering signing up for these services. #insects #insecticides #mosquitoes #mosquito #pyrethroids #chemical #pesticides #pollinators #nature
https://colinpurrington.com/2018/09/buzz-on-mosquito-sprays/

Effects of mosquito sprays on humans, pets, and wildlife » Colin Purrington's blog

Mosquito Authority, Mosquito Joe, Mosquito Platoon, Mosquito Shield, Mosquito Squad, TruGreen are often very reluctant to reveal what insecticides they use and sometimes imply that the chemicals are safe for everything except mosquitoes. This page contains information on what, exactly, they spray and what effects those chemicals have. After a little digging, I think I’ve […]

Colin Purrington's blog

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Vivek Gani

@colinpurrington Thanks for writing this! Do you see issues with direct permethrin (i.e. synthetic pyrethrin) spray *just* at a housing structure (below the roof)?

I went through a rabbit hole years ago trying to learn about pyrethrin (and the synthetically-made permethrin).

A lot of pest control folks where I am (southern USA) market themselves as using natural chemicals, this may just mean they're using pyrethrin which likely has the same risks when applying to the yard.

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Vivek Gani Jul 17, 2023

@colinpurrington

For example, for organic agriculture purposes Organic Materials Review Institute OMRI.org has specific rules around using pyrethrins, and rules out synthetics (i.e. permethrin) - https://www.omri.org/omri-search?page=1&query=pyrethrin&exactMatch=false

On the other end there's books about pyrethrum (which evangelize it) but interesting to see how pyrethrins have been used for IIRC over 150 years.

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Colin Purrington Jul 17, 2023

@vivekgani I think spraying onto window screens and around door frames might be a sensible thing to do in areas where mosquitoes are thick. Would kill a lot of them as they loitered, waiting to get in.