Mosquito Control? or Population Control?

Recently everyone in my area got sick with nausea, dizziness, hard to breath, vomiting, and sever headaches, and a host of other things. In my quest to figure out why, I discovered that it was on the same day as Vector Control fogging for the West Nile Disease in our neighborhoods.
I discovered a few things that I just think people should be aware of,
A 2002 Report By:
Citizens Campaign for the Environment and Citizens Environmental Research Institute
Titled: The Health Effects of Pesticides Used for Mosquito Control
What are the Health Effects of Pesticides?
Health effects of pesticides can cause both acute and chronic problems. Acute health effects appear shortly after exposure to these pesticides and can include: skin and eye irritations, headaches, dizziness and nausea, weakness, difficulty breathing, mental confusion and disorientation, seizures, coma, and death. Chronic health effects may not be apparent until months or years after exposure. Such health aliments include nervous, reproductive, and immune system disorders, and cancer.
I wondered, just how serious is West Nile, that we would rather have trucks spewing clouds of Fog to blanket a neighborhood, than risk catching the Disease. Is the cure worse than the disease?
I turned to the CDC for answers: These are the Stats for California, which has one of the highest outbreaks of WN:
2009 - 112 total cases, 4 human deaths, 18 horses, 2010 - 111 total cases, 6 human deaths, 19 horses
2011 - 158 total cases, 9 human deaths, 15 horses, 2012 - 479 total cases, 20 human deaths, 22 horses

That's a big jump for 2012, which begs the question, How well does spraying work? And is it worth the risk of pesticide poisoning? It takes 10 -15 years before cancer or neurologic symptoms will even show up.

In the whole US there were less than 6,000 cases in 2012, and less than 300 human deaths. I have heard that over 30,000 Americans die annually from the flu. So, is it really worth the heath risks to continue spraying, year after year? Most cities fog between 3am and 6am. While we are sleeping under our coolers, which are sucking all those pesticides into our homes.
I don't know if we were all poisoned or if it is a mass coincidence that we were ALL sick on the same day with the same symptoms. That just happened to fall on the same day that a blanket of "Fog Poison" filled our neighborhoods. And that all our symptoms echo pesticide poisoning.
Is this some Politicians Idea of "Job Creation", or instead of Mosquito Control is this Population Control? What will the future death toll from cancer etc be from the pesticides, compared to the less than 300 that died from WN last year?
Most Counties have a website that shows which neighborhoods will be sprayed. I didn't know about it, or I would have at least turned off my cooler.

Originally posted by misskat1
Is the cure worse than the disease?

I think that the cure is most certainly worse than the disease.

When you start calculating the numbers you will see that out of millions of people that less then 1/100th of 1 percent contracts those diseases that are carried by mosquitoes. Accept maybe Malaria.

I know that in a town near where I ive they started this fogging process nearly 30 years ago. That is where they have trucks spraying and driving through neighborhoods.

Unfortunately that does very little to the mosquito population, however on the other side of the fence, people get sick from the pesticides in the air and allot of times people with Asthma are seriously affected.

If you look at it from an economic standpoint you will find that the Ends do Not justify the Means.

This story seemed a bit bizarre when I read about it in the paper, presuming it's the one about using drones to identify mosquito swarms/breeding grounds or such. But why not. Scottish lakes deserve it!

I was also going to mention that it seemed to be a quiet day for news here in the UK, this bizarre story and the non-news headlines of 20 small sailing ships in a Gibraltar bay.

^ Looks like the news here is pretty quiet too

reply to post by ShadellacZumbrum


I am sorry it first posted blank,
I just bought a new windows 8 computer and the key board skips all over, I spent hours online with Dell, with no fix. It skipped to the post button while I was typing, erased everything and then posted it. I have to figure it out soon or its going through a top story window!

Interesting theory you title could have helped draw in more readers.

I was thinking something similar the other night as the spray truck drove by.

reply to post by misskat1


I see you fixed your post. Lol.

Anyway, mosquitoes are an extremely dangerous hazard when it comes to the transportation of infectious disease. I am not for most spraying, and I don't like reading about the havoc pesticides can reek on the ecosystem. I think most people should take the necessary precautions if an out break of a mosquito transmissible virus is reported. Having said that; not taking the proper steps to eradicate the source of the problem can lead to a fairly quick epidemic. Because with mosquitoes they're are very small, and a lot of times you don't even know you've been bitten until it's too late. Luckily, most 1st world countries are good at controlling this type of thing, and mitigating the viruses' spread before it gets out of control.

- speaking of which...
Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) cases are being reported all over the Eastern U.S.
EEE, is spread via a bite from an infected mosquito; affecting both animals and humans.

outbreaks.globalincidentmap.com...

In many other places throughout the world, -
it is not uncommon for these diseases to reach epidemic levels, more often than not.

without a program to terminate the viruses reservoir, nothing stops it from spreading,
and it just goes on and on.

reply to post by abeverage


Your right, changed the title!

reply to post by iunlimited491


From the Tri-County Health Dept Website: www.tchd.org

Risks and symptoms:
Fewer than one percent of mosquitoes carry this virus and fewer than one percent of people infected with the virus will develop severe illness.

The statistics for WN doesn't justify making my whole neighborhood sick, and exposing so many to cancer causing chemicals.

reply to post by misskat1


That's just an observation of here in the U.S.

Take a look at the map I provided in my previous post:

Nearly every outbreak is a mosquito-borne disease,
and people die every single day from them.

reply to post by iunlimited491r


I must be missing something, when I went to the above link, It says:

Cases and Deaths from VIRAL and BACTERIAL diseases, which have the potential for BIOLOGICAL TERRORISM.

The Icon for N, Calif is a false alarm investigation for white powder in mailboxes and one for S. California is for a dead squirrel that possibly has the plague.

I must have gotten the wrong site or just didn't find the Mosquito Fact Page???? Somehow, we are not on the same page!!

reply to post by misskat1


(O_o)

Use your brain; there are numerous stories about ALL kinds of outbreaks.
Not just indications of biological terrorism.

Take a look around -
I guess we are clearly not on the same page.

Dude just deal with it. You got a little sick and if you could prove spraying was the culprit I would still say deal with it.

My father had Malaria at one time in his life and it never completely goes away and two years ago I got Dangue fever in Costa Rica which was horrible if you get the same strain twice it is a death sentance. We have had cases of Dangue here in Florida before though rare it just isn't worth the risk.

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

www.mosquito.org...

Maquito's can all die and the world would be a better place.

Mosquito vectored diseases include protozoan diseases, i.e., malaria, filarial diseases such as dog heartworm, and viruses such as dengue, encephalitis and yellow fever. CDC Travelers' Health provides information on travel to destinations where human-borne diseases might be a problem.

Malaria
Dog Heartworm
Dengue
Yellow Fever
Eastern Equine Encephalitis
St. Louis Encephalitis
LaCrosse Encephalitis
Western Equine Encephalitis
West Nile Virus

reply to post by misskat1


I did find a couple of eee icons, but they were buried under a ton of white powder incidences, ducks dieing of botulism, another dead squirrel. I didn't find West Nile.
I understand the point you are making that there are out breaks globally that do need to be addressed, however, I live in N. California 700 miles away from a Squirrel that died of the plague. The next closest is a squirrel that died in New Mexico. I hardly feel threatened by the "outbreak". Now if I lived in an area where the map was lit up with deaths connected to WN, I would be volunteering to drive the fog truck. But, we don't, I think its over kill, and I don't want to Kill Over.

I don't know much about West Nile but anything to keep Malaria from taking hold is good in my eyes.

March 2013

About 3.3 billion people – half of the world's population – are at risk of malaria. In 2010, there were about 219 million malaria cases (with an uncertainty range of 154 million to 289 million) and an estimated 660 000 malaria deaths (with an uncertainty range of 490 000 to 836 000). Increased prevention and control measures have led to a reduction in malaria mortality rates by more than 25% globally since 2000 and by 33% in the WHO African Region.

www.who.int...

And Dungue fever

The incidence of dengue fever has increased dramatically since the 1960s, with around 50–100 million people infected yearly. Early descriptions of the condition date from 1779, and its viral cause and the transmission were elucidated in the early 20th century. Dengue has become a global problem since the Second World War and is endemic in more than 110 countries. Apart from eliminating the mosquitoes, work is ongoing on a vaccine, as well as medication targeted directly at the virus.

Mosquito's have killed more people than every war known to man.

reply to post by Grimpachi

If I lived in an area with Malaria and Dengue, then I would be more willing to risk pesticide poisoning, but I don't. However, in my county there were only 18 total cases last year of WN and only one was a human. I am concerned with the toll these pesticides take on our Bee and Bird population too.
In areas where the population suffers from Malaria and Dengue, the mosquitos should be sprayed. But, one person in all of Shasta County does not make a serious outbreak.

reply to post by misskat1


Well as I said which may not have been clear I live in the US. The sprays may not seem important ant because there isn't a problem for you NOW however the reason it isn't a problem is because of preventive measures. Once something like Malaria takes rout in an area then it is too late and it is a battle to get it under control. We are lucky in the states because we have already waged the war on those things now an occasional spraying as preventive medicine is for good measure. Many of the diseases transmitted by mosquito can be transmitted from wild life they can incubate in all sorts of animals. The last think you would want is an outbreak in the US.

The difference between a little queasiness and something like West Nile/Dangui is on par with a needle prick and a gun shot IMHO.

All I know is, sometimes problems act like Hydra. You solve one problem, another one, or two problems come back. The new problem(s) might be worse. I think adaption (like prevention) is in most cases better.

But whatever people do, it doesn't matter, because I will do my best to adapt to it myself.