What am I getting for my 300 dollars’ worth of a pesticide spray? Sadly, birds will often pick up insects killed by insecticides, and eat them or feed them to their young. If the spray is focused on wet areas, such as piles of wet leaves, chances are they’re killing far more fireflies than mosquitos. If the treatments target standing water, beneficial insects that eat mosquitos, like dragonfly larvae, will also be killed. Mosquitos are most active at dawn and dusk, but mosquito spray companies often come during the day when most pollinators are active. A commercial mosquito treatment will be more likely to kill butterflies, bees and ladybugs in your yard at the time of application than the mosquitoes you’re trying to get rid of. Mosquitos typically fly 1-3 miles, so they can quickly re-populate your yard. The droplet size of a mosquito spray must be so small that the chemicals must float in the air, but they also easily drift out of the target area, killing other insects or mingling into the air we breathe.ĭL: Sprays can only kill mosquitos that are in your yard at the time of spraying. This is because the droplet size of a pesticide must be small and must float in the air. When Pimentel looked specifically at flying insects in the study, like mosquitos, the average was less than 0.0001%, or only one in a million. MT: Published and peer-reviewed research by Professor David Pimentel shows that only 0.1% of the pesticides on average reached the target pests.

These experts agree: Mosquito treatments, including the alleged “all natural” variety can harm you and your environment, while not actually reducing mosquito populations.

To learn more about the problems with mosquito spraying, we interviewed Deborah Landau, an entomologist and conservation scientist at The Nature Conservancy, and Mary Travaglini, a certified organic land care professional and organic landscape manager at the Montgomery County, MD Department of Environmental Protection. The chemicals can also harm birds and insects that help eat mosquitos and pollinate your yard.

Spraying can harm you, your kids, pets and your neighbors. Did you know you could be poisoning your yard but mosquito populations are not being reduced?īefore deciding to spray your yard, know the facts. We interviewed two experts to learn more about the risks.Įach year, more yards are being sprayed for mosquitos.

We get a lot of questions and concerns about backyard mosquito sprays.

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