This is insane but not unexpected.

My dad used to say that some of the farmers who say that we're in charge of this world are wrong.

That we figure that we can run the world: rearrange the way that we do things to suit ourselves ...

... but if we don't co-operate with Mother Nature ...

... we can get away with it for a while ...

... but eventually ...

... Mother Nature will rise up - and kick us in the butt.

In a number of ways ... aboriginal people have some lessons to which we'd be wise to pay attention.

Especially since, two or three hundred years ago, there were one billion inhabitants in the world ... and a century or so later ... a couple of billion ... and now 7 billion ... (going on 10 billion ... in less than the next hundred years)?

How are we going to feed 'em all??

Bees are getting scarcer.

Humans are ... rather stupid, at times.

ole joyful

Good gosh! Besides the stupidity of spraying when bees are active, did I not read that Naled, the insecticide that was used, interferes with prenatal brain development? Isn't that the very reason they are trying to control the mosquito population? Leaves me shaking my head!

Not the first time. Years ago spraying for mosquitos (west Nile) , killed millions of lobsters in Long Island Sound.

This is a terrible thing, useless and senseless and irresponsible. These broap spectrum pesticides kill all kinds of pollinators, not just bees. Tiny parasitic wasps that are part of the team of beneficials that control caterpillars, aphids, scale insects, and other pests are killed by the many millions in just one neighborhood.

For humans and other warm blooded animals, Naled is extremely toxic.......it's an organophosphate, a cholinesterase inhibitor.

This type of mosquito abatement does far more envirinmental damage than it controls a mosquito population. Especially when fools aren't applying the contact killers at a time when mosquitoes are most likely to be active.

Makes my blood boil.

HOWEVER!

There are many, many plants that don't require pollination in the garden and many that are self pollinated. Add to those the crops that are wind pollinated and there would be very little starvation on the planet.

We would miss many of our fruits and nuts, but just about all of the essential crops world wide don't require insect pollination at all.

These situations where members of the animal kingdom come up shorthanded in what outwardly (at least to uneducated people like me) seem like honest efforts to protect humans are always difficult to decipher.

Is it your thought, rhizo, that there are other mosquito-cides available without broad spectrum consequences, that would be better to use? Or, is spraying the wrong measure, are there reasonable and equally effective alternatives?

Formerly Snidely (cannot adapt to Elmer for you, lol), your first comment is very insightful. These situations are very complex, indeed. And because there is an emotional component, urgency often trumps due diligence.

The fact is that aerial spraying is one of the least effective methods to get the pesticide to the target (mosquitoes), yet still creates the most problems for non-target animals like humans, pets, beneficial insects, amphibians, reptiles, fish, etc. Spraying from a truck is practically useless.

A successful mosquito abatement program requires, demands, participation from each of us. Adjustments to landscapes, cleaning gutters, removal of all standing water, applications of biological larvicide to ponds and ditches, dumping of plant saucers and bird baths, etc.

We should each be using a repellent of choice on our bodies or clothes, and the right kinds of clothes.

I personally think that those communities in areas where Zika has been identified in moquitoes need to begin to fine people with untended koi ponds, clogged gutters, and other mosquito breeding grounds. Abatement funds should be used to apply biological larvicide to community lakes and ponds, to incorporate fountain aerators to those standing bodies of water, too.

Bt-i (Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis), that biological control for mosquito larvae targets only the larvae of certain insects....some biting gnats, fungus gnats, mosquitoes, and a few other related species. I wish they could give canisters of the granules to each household.

My city has mosquito trucks that spew pesticides. The last time, they sprayed in the late afternoon when kids were outside, people were taking their power walks, bees and butterflies flitting all over.

Arkansas girl, you are right to be concerned but try to remember that an enormous number of our trees, grasses, and food crops do NOT need to be pollinated by bees or any other insect.

Remember, too, that our honeybees aren't even native to North America! They were brought over from Europe by early settlers. We have an abundance of native bees, though, and many thousands of kinds of other insect pollinators.

Anyone who has pollen allergies probably knows that it is the wind pollinated trees and grasses that cause their discomfort.

rhizo_1, your support for fines sounds good on the surface. However, it isn't quite so simple to control some of the mosquito species that can spread Zika. One in my area is the Asian Tiger.

"They feed on humans during the day and can breed indoors, spawning tiny eggs in house plants containing less than half a thimble of water. They will also breed in containers with no water at all because their eggs can survive dry conditions for up to one year."

Of course we do what we can to eliminate the breeding areas. But if homeowners would get fined for every half a thimble of water, interior or exterior, I may as well look into the process for filing for bankruptcy now.