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Doesn’t the City Spray for Mosquitoes?
Last year the city of Dallas did spray for mosquitoes. However, spraying is the least effective way to kill mosquitoes. For a mosquito to be affected by spraying, the mosquito must be active (flying), and the spray must come in direct contact with the bug. For the most part, spraying only affects front yards and misses the back yards and easements where the mosquito population is more likely to reside. Additionally, mosquitoes are most active in the pre-dawn and dusk hours, and the trucks spray in the early to late evenings. This factor alone makes spraying largely ineffective.
There is also a danger with broadcast spraying of adulticides (chemicals that kill the adult mosquito) into the air. The chemicals used are neurotoxins and can have a detrimental effect on the young, elderly, people with respiratory problems like asthma and persons with a compromised immune system. Another problem that occurs with spraying is that the chemicals used are broad spectrum - meaning they have little or no specificity toward the mosquito. These aerosolized pesticides also kill such species as bees, lady-bugs, butterflies, certain fish and dragonflies which are natural predators of the mosquito.
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