Friday, July 15, 2005

They're fogging the whole city


So it comes to this...

Winnipeg started to be progressive, using natural predators like dragonflies to kill adult mosquitoes and minnows to get the larvae. Of course, this year is rather unique in that we have had so much rain that the river is still flooded, the standing water situation is really bad, and the adult mosquitoes are about to descend. Perfrect conditions for lots of the bloodsucking insects.

So what does the province do? It forced the city to fog with Malathion yesterday. Check out the news release:
http://www.winnipeg.ca/cms/bugline/forcast/NR%20-%2024-Hour%20Notice%20-%20WNV%20Fogging%20Program%20-%20July%2014.pdf

So..... I do a quick search today (this morning) while my kid gets dressed. Here's what I find:
http://www.chem-tox.com/malathion/research/
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/op/malathion.htm
http://www.ncchem.com/malathion.htm

If I'm nervous about this stuff after 10 minutes of skimming these articles, I wonder what an indepth reading will make me feel like?

I'm also wondering if Malathion kills dragonfiles. There are so many right now it seems counter-productive to use the Malathion to kill the mosquitoes if the natural predators that we have worked to hard to produce (and who are all over the city) get killed as well.

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