By Nathaniel Smith, Columnist, The Times of Chester County, March 28, 2016

If they can’t breed, you don’t need to worry about using pesticides

I recently noticed a newspaper article that is very misleading about the costs and benefits of spraying to control mosquitoes.

The story was much too casual about the use of toxic chemicals in residential properties.

It brought out that the insecticides known as pyrethroids, widely used to kill insects, are “EPA approved” but that means, unfortunately, very little. The EPA itself says, among other cautions, that “pyrethroids are toxic to fish and to bees,” and the manufacturers’ instructions are full of warnings as well.

Dangers of spraying pyrethroids

The 256-page Pennsylvania Pesticide Applicator Certification Core Manual points out that, for humans, “Symptoms associated with synthetic pyrethroid insecticides include nausea, dizziness, weakness, nervousness, eye, and skin irritation.”

Pesticide drift is another problem: air-borne spray will not stay within a property line. If I spray my yard with an insecticide, my neighbors may not welcome it drifting onto their organic gardens, their children, and their cats (pyrethroids are toxic to cats)….

read more at The Times of Chester County