When I was a kid they use to announce the day before that the truck spraying DDT would be coming through town. As I recall at least a dozen boys on bicycles would follow behind the truck, and the plumes of spray coming out of the pipes.
Growing up, in the 50's and 60's,I spent my summers at our family's Fish Camp on Mary Walker Bayou right off the Pascagoula River, on the MS Gulf Coast As you can imagine, we had tons of mosquitos! The 'sprayman' used to drive through the camp on a regular basis all summer long and we used to run right behind him inside that sweet smelling cloud laughing our heads off! NONE of us has had any medical problems that might even be remotely related to that!