mosquito spraying

[JackM]

This is not the time of year, but during the summer, the county goes around at night with a fogger spraying for mosquitos.  Is this stuff harmful to bees?  Does the fact it is done at night make it such that the bees are not harmed being asleep in the hive?  They also use some stuff that looks like wood stove pellets that they spread and it stays on the ground.  Not sure of the name of it. they use helicopters and a spreader to deliver it.  Thanks.

[JP]

The mosquito spraying at night generally does not affect the bees unless the truck sits there and fogs the heck out of the spot where your bees are located. The pellets I'm assuming are placed in low areas where water has a tendency to pool up. I would be more concerned with the pellets. Try and find out their active ingredient and residual.


...JP

[Michael Bush]

My problem has always been when one of the spraying people wants to get home to their families in the evening so they spray at 2:00 pm... then it devastates the bees...

[Scadsobees]

I'd guess the pellets are some type of bt, like the mosquito dunks that can be purchased.  Any sort of chemical pesticide is usually damaging to all types of aquatic life.

[KD4MOJ]

I'm in a no spray zone (because of the girls). Not sure my neighbors are happy about that. The mosquitos' were brutal this year since my neighborhood borders a swamp.

...DOUG
KD4MOJ

[Poppi]

Scads...  it's not BT...  bt is primarily for Lepidoptera...  moths and such...  I have a concern with mosquito spraying but not from a county standpoint...  my neighbor, two houses down has a private company come and spray around there home.  I never know when that will happen but it's always during the day light hours.  When I see the truck at their house, I go remove the shims holding the telescoping top up for ventilation and I close the SBB for about an hour or so...   hate doing it in the summer when it's 100 degrees...  don't know if it helps or not...  certainly no way to tell about the foragers that are out and about.  I hope I never catch them spraying the standing water because we are only 1/8th of a mile from a large lake and groundwater contamination is strictly enforced since that lake is the primary reservoir for Columbia, SC and surrounding areas. 

[CapnChkn]

Mosquito Dunks!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_thuringiensis_israelensis

[Poppi]

CapnChkn...    I stand corrected. :)