Posted on 06/18/2008 8:31:04 AM PDT by fight_truth_decay
- The chemical concerns some, but an official says it's safe and effective.
NEWPORT NEWS - That heart- stopping roar you may have heard overhead Monday could mean fewer mosquito bites for the next two weeks.
Langley Air Force Base deployed C-130 planes over Hampton, Poquoson and York County as part of a three-day mission to spray Hampton Roads with an insecticide that kills mosquitoes on contact.
The planes whiz by at 200 mph and 150 feet from the ground to diffuse about a half-ounce of the chemical Dibrom per acre, said Mitch Burcham, pest control supervisor with Langley Air Force base. It dissipates so quickly that it poses almost no risk to humans, he said.
"We use this chemical because it's heavy and drops through the air well, even in high, hot temperatures," he said. "It's proven to work over the years."
(Excerpt) Read more at dailypress.com ...
Dibrom..." Also known as Naled, it is an organophosphate insecticide that has been registered for use in the United States since 1959 to kill adult mosquitoes.
When properly applied, the EPA says exposure and risks to adults and children posed by aerial and ground applications is hundreds or thousands of times less than would pose a health threat.
• At high doses, Dibrom can cause nausea, dizziness and confusion. A severe high-dose can cause convulsions, respiratory paralysis and death.
• Dibrom does not pose any unreasonable risk to wildlife or the environment. It has a low toxicity to birds and mammals. However, it is highly toxic to insects and will kill beneficial insects such as honeybees and ladybugs.
I wish the AF would send these bombers over my place in Cheney, Washington. This year has been the worse mosquito season in the last 10 years!!!
Maybe I'm just getting used to walking around with half my normal blood supply.....
My daughter will not be happy, she is convinced that the world will end in 2012 because we will have killed all the honey bees.
Alright. In view of the recent AF events, this screams with humor
The Air Force’s new mission is not increased engagement in the war on terror but in killing mosquitos.
Whoa.
The Hercules is very quiet for a big four engine turboprop.
Where do I send my payment to AP?
/johnny
Mosquitos, Mosque-itos, same diff...
Last year in Cedar Island, NC they were so thick it looked like a snow flurry when driving at night with high beams.
Been bad near here as well. I showed this article to a commie-librul tree-hugging friend just now. His response? “Nuke the b@st@rds!” I’m thinking somebody’s patience might be wearing a little thin...
That's a hellava big HOWEVER...
Honeybees are crucial to many crops and lady bugs eat aphids -
"'' The decline in wild honeybee colonies and resulting losses in pollination services to gardeners and potentially to commercial agriculture has led the United States Department of Agriculture to describe the situation as an ''impending pollination crisis.'' ...
Another critical part of the solution is the quest for alternative pollinators. In research we did this past summer, we found that bumblebees, squashbees and other native, wild insects were doing the lion's share of pollinating squash and pumpkin flowers in Maine, Arizona, Georgia and Tennessee. "
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F03E2D91130F931A35752C0A961958260
This stuff is "organophosphate insecticide that has been registered for use in the United States since 1959 ..." and if it kills bumblebees and ladybugs, it will kill the other beneficial and crucial insects as well.
And they admit it's also toxic to humans "in high doses" - well, what about 'incremental' doses. There have been many people who eventually die from incremental doses of asbestos, radiation to people working in watch factories when they used the lethal 'glow in the dark' paint, etc - and cyanide can kill - in high doses, almost immediately - OR in tiny doses, over a period of many years.
If a thing is toxic to health, if it's "organophosphate" it's anti-life...
How many of you remember those yellow "pest strips" to hang in your house back in the '60's? I reasoned back then that if they killed life - I didn't want them in my house. A few years later = they were yanked, as they proved toxic to human too - duh
How many times must we go down this road?
(My house is surrounded by forest and wet lands. Mosquito Central. I have citronella geraniums in pots by my kitchen door (In Maine, no one uses the front door. The front door is there only as a 'stranger detector.' "From Away' people will always knock on the front door while Mainer's come to the kitchen door.) 
...and daisies by the steps. Mosquitoes and other insects do not like either. In addition = and don't tell the greenies on me - in the spring, when the mosquito larvae are floating in pools on the water like dancing pepper, I take my out dated olive/vegetable oil and pour it on - it suffocates the little buggers and cuts down on the population.
> The Air Force’s new mission is not increased engagement in the war on terror but in killing mosquitos.
The Air Force has been spraying this area since at least the early 1950s, so it is hardly new.
Humor. Humor.
Hey, you can’t have those cushy chAirforce guys and gals getting mosquito bites! Those are for Army and Marine grunts!
Were they actually toxic? I always thought they just had sticky glue that trapped the insects.
FWIW, pest strips are still available at my local hardware store.
“What did you do during the war, Daddy?”
“Killed mosquitos.”
“You mean those old British planes?”
“Nope. Mosquitos. We we’re convinced that OBL had them carrying a new flu virus, AIDS, or some other exotic disease.”
What is the connection she makes between no bees and the end of the world?
Maybe not ...
Some sweet news on honeybees Jersey's swarms are on the rise again, with help from man and nature
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