Anonymous wrote:OP, when I sit outside I have a huge fan that I turn on. It cools me off and literally blows the mosquitoes away. You may have more than we do but the fan helps.

(And I am not a random crazy person--I got the fan idea from somewhere reputable...I just can't remember. Maybe the Times?)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in a row house in Petworth where the mosquitoes are just terrible. To me, summer means running from the car into my house, yelling at my kids to close the door quickly, and not enjoying our backyard/deck because the mosquitoes are so bad. I've toyed with the idea of Mosquito Squad or similar service in past years, but my environmentally-minded self just feels like the chemicals are probably terrible (especially for bees, right)? Does anyone know how bad these are?

For the record, we do the normal precautions of mosquitoe dunks in drains, clean gutters, and generally remove standing water, but the number of mosquitoes is still insane.

It's not great. Lots of beneficial insects fall prey to those poisons. Just empty standing water, for goodness sake. And wear bug spray. Also, you know that mosquitoes cross yard boundaries, right? Just b/c you spray doesn't mean you won't have mosquitoes. These services have to be the biggest waste of money.

Anonymous wrote:I live in a row house in Petworth where the mosquitoes are just terrible. To me, summer means running from the car into my house, yelling at my kids to close the door quickly, and not enjoying our backyard/deck because the mosquitoes are so bad. I've toyed with the idea of Mosquito Squad or similar service in past years, but my environmentally-minded self just feels like the chemicals are probably terrible (especially for bees, right)? Does anyone know how bad these are?

For the record, we do the normal precautions of mosquitoe dunks in drains, clean gutters, and generally remove standing water, but the number of mosquitoes is still insane.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We are still mobbed by bees and butterflies and birds (after 4 years.)

Please, don't pretend like you aren't harming bees and butterflies. Bees and butterflies are insects. Pyrethrin will kill them. They just fly farther than mosquitos so these bees and butterflies flew miles and miles and then landed in your yard and will die off shortly.

eta: fixed the formatting

If that's true they are procreating at an alarming rate before they die. And they are leaving their dead carcasses elsewhere.

How did you get the bees and butterflies to read the memo to not feed on your sprayed yard? I am impressed!

They do feed in my yard! How did you get them to read the memo to die somewhere else, because they are not dying in my yard?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We are still mobbed by bees and butterflies and birds (after 4 years.)

Please, don't pretend like you aren't harming bees and butterflies. Bees and butterflies are insects. Pyrethrin will kill them. They just fly farther than mosquitos so these bees and butterflies flew miles and miles and then landed in your yard and will die off shortly.

eta: fixed the formatting

If that's true they are procreating at an alarming rate before they die. And they are leaving their dead carcasses elsewhere.

How did you get the bees and butterflies to read the memo to not feed on your sprayed yard? I am impressed!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's about as bad as you can get for the environment. Many countries have banned Round Up, for good reason. In addition, there is a strong correlation between the diminishing bee population and "weed killers". Companies such as Mosquito Squad are under no obligation to tell you the truth (ethically, they should - but it usually does not happen).

Look around. One sees far fewer chemical trucks than in the past, for good reason. People need to educate themselves, especially in a geographic area that is supposed to be "educated".

http://www.glyphosate.news/2016-06-27-study-shows-honeybees-are-starving-because-of-roundup.html

you know mosquitos are not weeds, right?

Same principle. Or are you really that dense?

Omigod. Please don't give a bad name to people who care about the environment and also are capable of rational analysis. There is no "principle" by which you can use information about one substance to draw conclusions about the effects of an entirely different substance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's about as bad as you can get for the environment. Many countries have banned Round Up, for good reason. In addition, there is a strong correlation between the diminishing bee population and "weed killers". Companies such as Mosquito Squad are under no obligation to tell you the truth (ethically, they should - but it usually does not happen).

Look around. One sees far fewer chemical trucks than in the past, for good reason. People need to educate themselves, especially in a geographic area that is supposed to be "educated".

http://www.glyphosate.news/2016-06-27-study-shows-honeybees-are-starving-because-of-roundup.html

you know mosquitos are not weeds, right?

Same principle. Or are you really that dense?

Anonymous wrote:There is no such thing as a "natural" pesticide. The mosquito sprayings kill ALL the beneficial insects:
https://www.uaex.edu/publications/PDF/ag1165.pdf

There are many scientific sources on this. Yet we don't plant native plants, we don't have proper storm water waste systems, we don't require LED building practices, we don't have green roofs or solar panels. We pave over the size of Rock Creek Park EVERY YEAR in the DMV:
https://www.citylab.com/environment/2016/03/washington-dc-development-stormwater-runoff-impervious-surfaces/475950/

And yet, we expect to have warm weather mosquito free? The tiger mosquito is invasive and very hard to kill. People have been spraying it for decades. So, OP, what do you expect to change?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We are still mobbed by bees and butterflies and birds (after 4 years.)

Please, don't pretend like you aren't harming bees and butterflies. Bees and butterflies are insects. Pyrethrin will kill them. They just fly farther than mosquitos so these bees and butterflies flew miles and miles and then landed in your yard and will die off shortly.

eta: fixed the formatting

If that's true they are procreating at an alarming rate before they die. And they are leaving their dead carcasses elsewhere.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We are still mobbed by bees and butterflies and birds (after 4 years.)

Please, don't pretend like you aren't harming bees and butterflies. Bees and butterflies are insects. Pyrethrin will kill them. They just fly farther than mosquitos so these bees and butterflies flew miles and miles and then landed in your yard and will die off shortly.

eta: fixed the formatting

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's about as bad as you can get for the environment. Many countries have banned Round Up, for good reason. In addition, there is a strong correlation between the diminishing bee population and "weed killers". Companies such as Mosquito Squad are under no obligation to tell you the truth (ethically, they should - but it usually does not happen).

Look around. One sees far fewer chemical trucks than in the past, for good reason. People need to educate themselves, especially in a geographic area that is supposed to be "educated".

http://www.glyphosate.news/2016-06-27-study-shows-honeybees-are-starving-because-of-roundup.html

you know mosquitos are not weeds, right?

Anonymous wrote:Unless your entire neighborhood sprays will it really make a difference?