Reply to Does it bother you when neighbors use pesticides on their lawn?

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[quote=Anonymous]I'll piggyback on 20:28's post on pesticide resistance. From [url]http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/10/1/l_101_02.html[/url] :

[i]Every time chemicals are sprayed on a lawn to kill weeds or ants for example, a few naturally resistant members of the targeted population survive and create a new generation of pests that are poison-resistant. That generation breeds another more-resistant generation; eventually, the pesticide may be rendered ineffective or even kill other wildlife or the very grass it was designed to protect.

In many ways, human actions are hastening pests' evolution of resistance. Farmers spray higher doses of pesticide if the traditional dose doesn't kill, so genetic mechanisms that enable the pests to survive the stronger doses rapidly become widespread as the offspring of resistant individuals come to dominate the population. [/i]

From the "Insecticide Resistance Action Committee" (Who knew such a thing existed?) [url]http://www.irac-online.org/content/uploads/VM-Layout-v2.6_LR.pdf[/url] :

[i]Although public health uses account for only a very small fraction of overall insecticide quantities applied, many vector species of public health importance have already developed resistance to one or more insecticides. Development of resistance is a complex and dynamic process and depends upon many factors. Most commonly, when the frequency of resistant insects in a vector population increases, efficacy of the treatment decreases up to the point where the insecticide has to be replaced by another one. Increasing the dosages in an attempt to maintain efficacy is not a recommended option because of environmental and safety concerns and increased cost of the insecticide. The resistance genes in the vector population may also be driven to even higher frequencies. Replacing an insecticide with a new one has important cost, logistic and sociological implications that will be discussed later. In addition, a significant reduction of morbidity and mortality can be achieved only if the efficacy of vector control interventions is continuously maintained at a very high level. [/i][i]

West Nile is here already, and mosquitoes carrying Chikungunya are all over the Caribbean and have transmitted that virus to a handful of people in the U.S. in 2014. This used to be a tropical virus, along with Dengue. For the first time ever Chik virus can now be found in Florida mosquitoes.

We need to quit spraying for our convenience and save the insecticides for when we are having outbreaks of insect-borne disease only. Otherwise the mosquitoes carrying insecticide-resistant genes will overpopulate and we won't be able to kill those with anything...except another, stronger toxin. [/quote]

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