Mosquito control and honeybees

[katmike]

I live in timber area and mosquitos are a real problem. I always try to eliminate standing water but we've had a bunch of rain this year. Got me to thinking that raising bees has changed my way of thinking. I no longer fog areas around the house for fear it may harm the bees. Should I continue to fog only in selected areas? What about the mosquito "dunks" that are put in standing water (like bird baths, etc.)?

[Bodo]

Dunks should be safe. They're just a bacteria that kills larvae.

Fogging is Probably a bad idea.

[James Henderson]

Here in south Louisiana, Mosquito Abatement a couple times weekly or biweekly or so sprays us with insecticide by truck and and low flying airplane during the spring and summer months. No problems if they do it at night only as I am far enough from the street.

However, I really love it when the mosqito spray truck drives past me blowing out insecticide when I am also driving down the road in traffic and I have the A/C on or my windows are down.

They do fog my neighbors yard off and on during daylight hours only. I have been lucky so far that daytime fogging has only killed less than 100 foragers total due to honeybee directly contacting the spray. I have asked them to fog after dark, but they refuse. I keep my hives as far away from the property line as possible and have a 6 ft wooden fence which keeps most of the spray away.

Personally I would not spray any "cides" near your colonies during the day and if at night only when there is no wind blowing towards them. Just make sure the drift does not drift to them. When you are killing the mosquitos, you are also killing every other insect the spray touches including beneficial insects.

I think Lowes or Home Depot sells propane mosquito killers. This could be an option or invest in a lot of repellent and citronella candles. Purple martin next boxes and bat boxes are good to attract those critters.

Next year I am selling my house and moving into the country where the mosquito sprayers do not operate and I can't hear semi-automatic gunfire and sirens off in the distance at night.

[MichaelW]

The not so secret secret among entomology departments is
that mosquito abatement spray programs do not work to control
mosquitos. Its all PR. Its pretty bad PR if you happen to be a
beekeeper or environmentalists, so I don't really understand what
they think they are accomplishing. Keep in mind spraying at night
does not kill daytime and evening feeding mosquitoes. Anyway,

I started using the BTI dunks in my livestock water and rain barrels.
It works great, and is supposed to be completely safe. Thats probably
true, but if not it still beats Lacrosse Encephalitis. They pour BTI directly
into a river here to keep the blackflies off golfers

[aszalan]

I agree with MichaelW, go with the BTI dunks (strain of Bt that only works on flies and not other insects) or if you have ponds, one could even try mosquito fish (Gambusia affinis) http://www.fattigfish.com/mosfish.htm

[simplyhoney]

I have been hit hard my aerial applicators of Malithion. For years we have had some forager losses, but levels were acceptable. But in recent years the losses are stagering. I have been documenting everything. We have asked the sprayers to call us 24 hours before they spray near one of our bee yards so that we might move the bees if we feel it needs to be done. But they don't. I usually will move the bees if it is a weak yard. If it is a strong yard they seem to take the loss of their field force ok and come back strong. We have also asked them to spray late in the evening, but I have caught them spraying at 3 oclock in the afternoon.
Our problems started about 4 years ago with the big West Nile scare. There was money allocated from the state to certain districts that were seen as high mosquito areas, which ours is. Ever since then it seems to get worse. I beileve that they are spending their budget from the state in any way possible so that the jobs that were created will continue to be there.
It is very frustrating and I am one summer away from filing a lawsuite if it doesn't improve.

[MichaelW]

Simplyhoney,

Not knowing exactly what they are doing, I would still suggest that there is
supporting documentation that community spray programs
are not effective for mosquito control. If you can find these studies/documents,
they may help you with a lawsuit. I have never seen such studies, but I just took
a Medical and Veterinary Entomology class and we discussed mosquito control in
detail. Effecting the larval habitat is the only way to control mosquito populations.
Spray trucks don't do that. The rest of your political/money assessment sounds right on target
to me.

[Dr.Wax]

The not so secret secret among entomology departments is
that mosquito abatement spray programs do not work to control
mosquitos. Its all PR.

Amen.

[Troy]

I am an all natural beekeeper, and am not infavor of spraying if it does not need to be done. Having said that - I live in Florida, where it must be done. We have West Nile virus, Eastern equine Encephalitis virus, and in the past Malaria has been present in Florida.

Maybe you are correct in that it won't control them in the long term, but when they spray my area, the adult mosquitoes that bite me are knocked noticeably back for a week or so.

I am sure they are still hatching like crazy and their population quickly rebounds, but even that quick knockdown is helpful.

Right now the mosquitoes are so bad that you cannot be outside at dusk. No way, no how. In fact thanks for reminding me to call mosquito control.