A reader contacted me recently with an interesting dilemma.
Let’s say that you are environmentally conscious, and you have lots of flowers and a vegetable garden. All is humming along famously in your backyard oasis until your next-door neighbor hires a private contractor to spray for mosquitoes. In short order, the honeybees, ladybugs, butterflies, lighting bugs and a whole host of other insects disappear from your yard. What do you do?
The problem is that most private pesticide contractors and municipalities typically use the pesticide pyrethrin in a fog of water vapor. They do this at night or in very early morning to kill both flying mosquitoes and those resting on vegetation. That fog tends to drift around with the slightest breeze, so it cannot be contained to just one yard.
Pyrethrin is the pesticide of choice because it is a natural chemical extracted from chrysanthemum flowers, and the EPA has judged it to be relatively safe for humans. The crux of the problem is that pyrethrin and other pyrethroids are broad-spectrum pesticides, meaning they kill virtually every species of insect that comes in contact with them. They will also kill the fish in your fishpond or in an adjacent stream.
There are no villains in this story. Mosquitoes are aggravating and can transmit a number of pretty nasty diseases. Private pest control contractors and municipalities provide a valuable service, and they do it well. But there are other, more environmentally friendly, “green” options for dealing with mosquitoes. Some pest control contractors also offer more targeted, less-invasive strategies.
If you prefer doing it yourself, think the three D’s of mosquito control — drain, dress and defend. Start by eliminating mosquito breeding sites. Walk around your yard and empty or remove anything that contains standing water — kiddie pools, old tires, gutters, buckets and flowerpot trays, for example. Use mosquito dunk tablets in fishponds and bird baths. When working in the yard, dress in light colors and wear long sleeves and pants. You can safely treat your clothes with cheap, easy to use insect repellents such as DEET, pyrethrin products or picaridin.
For garden parties and other outdoor gatherings, citronella candles and tiki torches can help, but have limited effectiveness unless you are right next to the flame. There are other things that are both effective and provide better coverage.
Hang a bat house. Bats are mosquito-killing machines, devouring thousands of mosquitoes in one night. Check out the mosquito “bucket of doom” on the internet. By all accounts, it’s an effective, easy and inexpensive alternative.
Hold your outdoor gatherings in a screened-in porch or use one a pop-up screened canopy. Thermacells are great, but they use allethrin, a synthetic form of pyrethrin. The dispersal area, however, is much less than the fog method.
Mosquitoes are weak flyers and an electric fan, even on low speed, is amazingly effective at dispersing both the carbon dioxide in your breath, which the mosquitoes use to find you, and physically blowing the little bloodsucking buggers away.
Talk with your neighbors about these environmentally sensitive methods for dealing with mosquitoes. Maybe they won’t be so quick to go for the nuclear option.
Dennis Chastain is a Pickens County naturalist, historian and former tour guide. He has been writing feature articles for South Carolina Wildlife magazine and other outdoor publications since 1989.
