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Read the following Q & A for the Bugman, Richard Fagerlund

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Q: My friend just came back from visiting his aunt and uncle in
Sarasota, Fla. At their house, there is a portal through which a
pesticide company regularly sprays God-knows-what into their home.
Have you ever heard of such a thing?

This goes beyond even the baseboard-spraying contracts you've warned
about. I'm truly horrified. What do you think?

A: This is a new gimmick in the industry to generate business. One
company is even building homes with piping in the walls where
pesticides can be sprayed regularly to control the pests in the walls.

Of course this is nonsense, as most pests don't live in walls. Pests
have to have food, water and harborage in order to feel comfortable.
While they can hide in a wall, there isn't any food or water there.
Ants are the most likely insects to pass through a wall while coming
in from the outside, but almost all ants can be controlled by placing
baits where they forage. American roaches and Oriental roaches don't
live in walls, and German roaches are very rarely bad enough to
warrant injecting pesticides into walls.

Besides, if you have openings in the walls where insects are coming
into the living area, what is going to keep the pesticides from doing
the same thing? Why would anyone want to live in a house with walls
full of pesticides? That is even scarier than baseboard spraying,
which is utterly useless as a pest control mechanism. This is a
gimmick, nothing more, and has no value whatsoever in controlling
pests.

Q: I work in a laboratory where we have a collection of insects. A
chemical called Vapona is applied to discourage the bugs that eat
dried insects, but the chemical is making me sick. I don't want to
complain because I may get fired.

What should I do?

A: Vapona is one of the most insidious pesticides available and,
unfortunately, it is widely used on insect collections at museums,
institutions and elsewhere. Vapona can cause chest discomfort,
constriction of pupils, the inability to walk, muscle twitching,
dizziness and seizures. Long-term effects can include slowness of
thinking, memory defects, irritability and delayed reaction times. In
laboratory rats it can cause birth defects and fetal death.
It may be good at controlling insects, but it isn't good for any
human inhabitants of the rooms where it is used. I don't believe
public institutions, such as universities, should even be allowed to
use this product because it can endanger students working around it.
If people want to use it in their collections at home, that is their
business. There are safe ways to protect insect collections from
dermestid beetles that won't endanger the health of people working in
the area.

Entomologist Richard Fagerlund can be reached at
<mailto:fagerlun@unm.edu>fagerlun@unm.edu. His site is
www.askthebugman.com.
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URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/21/HOGK1GOSD01.DTL

©2006 San Francisco Chronicle

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Hello, I'm doing research for an environmental studies course at the U of W. I have some questions about the mosquito abatement program. Thanks!

What is CROW's main concern about fogging in the City of Winnipeg?
CROW is mostly concerned about the human health effects of repeated low-dose exposures to organophosphate pesticides. The risks outweigh the possible benefits of fogging for mosquitoes . Mosquito populations die off for short periods of time and then rebound while predator populations of beneficial birds and insects take much longer to come back. Mosquitoes must be directly hit with spray droplets to be killed and can receive a sub-lethal dose. Mosquitoes that aren't killed become more aggressive and, because their stomach linings may be damaged, more susceptible to contracting and spreading virus. For more about the health risks, see our Open Letter to politicians.

How can somebody actively participate in stopping the city from fogging?
The best way to prevent fogging near you is to register your buffer zone after the new year. To protect yourself even more, sign up 5 homes within a 200 metre radius of your residence. For a more long-term solution, pressure your City Counsellor to adopt safer alternatives. See Actions & Events.

Does CROW support larviciding? Are there environmental risks to larviciding? If so, what are they?
Larviciding with biological agents is certainly a much preferred option to adulticiding. CROW does not support the use of Dursban for larviciding anywhere, and continues to pressure the City to discontinue its use altogether. There are environmental groups who object to larviciding (for example, Earth Action in PEI). Bti is far less toxic than Malathion and believed to affect only the target insects, but it would probably be naive to believe it's completely safe. See this brief Bt factsheet from Beyond Pesticides or this 8 page Bt factsheet from NCAP. Remember that the product used for larviciding is Bti, Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (vectobac or aquabac).

Are there viable alternatives to fogging when mosquito populations are large?
A number of safer alternative products are being tested for mosquito control, including such things as cinnamon extract, garlic and coca-cola. See About Alternatives for more options. Personal protection and reducing standing water near your own home remain the safest options.

What has CROW done as an organization to educate the public about the dangers of Malathion and fogging in Winnipeg?
CROW attends workshops and community events with our display, offers guest speaker services to organizations and schools, responds to phone and mail queries, provides an e-mail newsletter and constantly updates the website as new information becomes available.

thank you!
Thank you for the great questions!

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