Sounds worse than first thought. Just add it to the list of others :pinch::-O
Surveying South Florida, mosquitoes and the illnesses they carry are always in the back of our minds. Personally I cannot stand bug spray but if it will prevent some of what they are carrying these days I may start spraying. There are cases in my county and the cases to the north of me in the area we work and we frequent mosquito ridden areas. Just today I swear you couldn't stand still for 30 seconds without losing a quart of blood.
If the Zika Virus gets started here in the US, it will most certainly get the DDT argument going again. I was just a kid when it was banned but being raised on a cotton farm, it was all around us in my younger years. For some reason, I have been reading both sides of the story lately. The estimates of the lives lost due to banning DDT are staggering. It' also interesting reading.
The first one is obviously biased but has a lot of the military history of DDT use.
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-truth-about-ddt-and-silent-spring
http://scienceheroes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=309&Itemid=263
James
Zika, Dengue, and Chikungunya are quite similar, mostly the symptoms, and also the Aedes Aegypti mosquito as carrier.
My wife and I both got Chikungunya last October when we visited family in Merida, Yucatan. Not fun, we are not over it yet.
Currently in the Yucatan they are spraying with something that is intended to disrupt the breading cycle... Genetic Modification. Spooky.
My primary index to information about all this is https://yucalandia.com/science-health-issues/dengue-what-to-do/
CDC seems to be politically driven and lacking in information.
Not something to be taken lightly.
Thankfully we don't live in an area that has this problem, yet.
Brian McEachern, post: 366986, member: 9299 wrote: Surveying South Florida, mosquitoes and the illnesses they carry are always in the back of our minds. Personally I cannot stand bug spray but if it will prevent some of what they are carrying these days I may start spraying. There are cases in my county and the cases to the north of me in the area we work and we frequent mosquito ridden areas. Just today I swear you couldn't stand still for 30 seconds without losing a quart of blood.
Do some research, there are always less popular and more expensive natural products that work just as effectively.
imaudigger, post: 367219, member: 7286 wrote: Do some research, there are always less popular and more expensive natural products that work just as effectively.
Mud is usually a go to but landowners can't handle it when you show up with it all over your skin!
Seriously though, it is the time of year now to be looking into these things. A good natural product that doesn't smell like you just bug bombed your house would be optimal. Please share any recommendations you have of the sort.
My early years from 1953 till 1957 or so were spent where there now exists the western most an d 1st jet runway at Love Field in Dallas one block north of the viaduct (been rerouted now).
I remember the spraying of DDT at nights and everyone was ordered by the city to bring in the pets, close the windows and don't come out till mid morning.
Dad would usually load us up and we would go visiting relatives for a few days.
People that had to commute during the spraying hours were actually wearing gas masks.
A Harris, post: 367337, member: 81 wrote: My early years from 1953 till 1957 or so were spent where there now exists the western most an d 1st jet runway at Love Field in Dallas one block north of the viaduct (been rerouted now).
I remember the spraying of DDT at nights and everyone was ordered by the city to bring in the pets, close the windows and don't come out till mid morning.
Dad would usually load us up and we would go visiting relatives for a few days.
People that had to commute during the spraying hours were actually wearing gas masks.
I predict that DDT will make a come back once people in the US start having children with deformities.
imaudigger, post: 367393, member: 7286 wrote: I predict that DDT will make a come back once people in the US start having children with deformities.
isn't that already happening?
I know that we did not have much of a problem with fire ants, ground hornets, mosquito and every living critter it touched when it was possible to get chlordane at the farm store.
1oz in 5+gal of water would last a year or more.
It was very effective outside to lay down a perimeter defense.
It was so good the neighbor's dog or cat would not enter your yard to poop.
Problem was when people started using it on and in their homes.
Very wicked stuff.
When my Dad died in 89 there was a quart of chlordane in the barn. Don't really remember how it got disposed of.
Yep, it worked great.
Fortunately, most of my time surveying these days is at the comfort and relative safety of my desk. However, we do like our weekends and evenings outdoors, especially in the spring and fall. We've found that a mix of eucalyptus oil and lavender oil usually works pretty well in keeping the mosquitos away. I think citrus helps as well. We found this stuff at a "hippy store" once. It works great on our camping trips, even on the dog! It may not work as well for more aggressive bugs, but for what we encounter around here (Central California from the eastern mountains to the coast) it seems to work just fine.
