Please do not spray the mosquitoes.
ANDAll living things play a vital role in an ecosystem. Mosquitoes are a food source for fish, predatory insects, bats, birds, dragonflies, spiders and other mosquitoes. They also filter feed, convert organic matter and help recycle nutrients back into the ecosystem. Mosquitoes are also pollinators that help plants reproduce.
Here are a few more reasons why you might not want sto pray for mosquitoes:
- Effects of chemicals: Some people and pets may experience eye, skin, nose, or throat irritation or respiratory problems, even cancer, after exposure to chemicals.
- Pesticide Residue: Pesticides can remain on outdoor surfaces such as wooden walkways and furniture after spraying.
- Small floating insects: Oil surfactants used to reduce the surface tension of water can suffocate small insects and disrupt the entire food chain.
- Whether natural or synthetic, broad-spectrum insecticides they are highly toxic to a wide variety of insects, not just mosquitoes.
A few years ago I went on a fishing trip to a wilderness area in central Ontario, Canada. It was so remote that we could hear wolves howling at night and see bears and the northern lights. I took mosquito repellent but to my surprise I didn’t need it. The lodge owner said the area had never been sprayed and cataloged more than 40 different species of dragonflies. Some of the dragonflies were beautiful iridescent blues, reds and greens. It was the dragon flies that kept the mosquitoes under control.
Florida has over 100 species of dragonflies, and some say 169 species have been recorded in the state. Florida is home to a total of 187 species of butterflies, the most of any state east of the Mississippi River. However, Vineyards Community Park in Collier County has a butterfly garden without butterflies.
While spraying could be somewhat successful against floodwater mosquitoes, the Aedes mosquito, which can spread yellow fever, dengue fever and chikungunya, breeds in containers that are not easily accessible.
- The Aedes mosquito lays its eggs in containers, flower pots, cans, bottles, cupboards, garbage and indoors.
- She lays her eggs above the waterline.
- When the water level rises, the eggs fall, hatch and mature.
- These conditions are not ideal for mass spraying campaigns.
- Mosquito spray is timed when mosquitoes are present. In other words, after you’ve been bitten
- Larvicides disrupt the food chain and deprive fish of their natural food by killing beneficial larvae that feed on mosquito larvae.
- Dragonflies (on the other hand) are always looking for their primary food.
- We need dragonflies to protect us from all kinds of mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes can become resistant to insecticides. See link [1] below.
- Pyrethroid insecticides continue to be the primary means of controlling Aedes adults.
- Resistance to pyrethroids has been found worldwide, but levels vary.
- Resistance is primarily caused by gene mutations.
- Multiple mutations can lead to highly resistant mosquito populations.
- Mosquitoes cannot develop resistance to dragonflies.
- Humans do not develop resistance to pesticides.
From 2003 to the 2024I travelled eleven times for more than 32 weeks throughout the Brazilian Amazon rainforest in five different Brazilian states and in all my travels I saw only two mosquitoes. When you have a balanced ecosystem, pest problems will be easily managed. I spent two weeks living with locals in an Amazonian village called San Antonio de Matupi deep in the Amazon. I asked several people who said the area was malaria free. Malaria does exist in Brazil, but it is very rare in cities and towns.
Insecticides kill predatory insects such as dragonflies whose primary food source is mosquitoes. Mosquitoes have a much shorter reproductive cycle than predators and you end up with more mosquitoes than before. Not to mention killing beneficial insects like bees and butterflies. Birds and bats that feed on insects are also vulnerable and people can’t help being sprayed. Some of the insecticides are extremely lethal to humans and some are systemic ien plants and nectar from the flowers of sprayed plants will kill the bees and butterflies. Spraying insecticides on rivers and ponds is extremely expensive andn.d ecological disaster. Window screens, mosquito nets and repellants are some effective ways to prevent bites. Mosquitoes usually appear at dawn and dusk.
Ddragonflies wsick protect us from all kinds mosquitoes throughout.
One solution could be to re-introduce native dragonflies to areas where spraying has driven them to near extinction.
Please read “The Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.