Dallas Spraying

[Valk]

Does Dallas and surrounding areas not use airborne spraying for combating mosquitoes? I know they are using them for the current outbreak of West Nile.

[RPB]

I was getting a out of the schools and daycares immediately hosing the poison off the kids' swingsets and playground equipment to protect the children and leaving puddles of water for new mosquitoes to breed to bite the kids...

So they repeat the spraying and repeat the rinsing and leaving puddles of water ...

[Valk]

I remember as a kid we used to hang on the truck with our bicycles and get fogged up pretty good.

[TxRVer]

I believe this is the first time for aerial spraying in DFW. They normally spray from the back of trucks.

[Valk]

We’re fortunate in our county that they do aerial sprays along with truck foggers when the mosquitoes get bad. That comes along with the territory when you live on the Gulf of Mexico.

[Heartland Patriot]

The amount being released by the aerial spraying is more diluted than the fogging from the trucks. I'm just making a statement, not arguing the effectivity of one over the other.

[hi-power]

I used to sell and install mosquito systems a few years ago mostly in the North Dallas/University Park areas. We'd run 1/4" tubing around the eaves of a house or pop-ups around bushes then install a special nozzle every 10-15 feet or so. The chemical is pyrethrine diluted with water. If I remember correctly, it was about a quart of the chemical into 50 gallons of water.

My co-worker once accidentally turned the system on while I was installing a nozzle and I took a bath in the stuff. Nothing happened. I wouldn't drink it but I don't think it's as harmful as some people think it is. On the plus side, I was mosquito-free for weeks after that!

[teri]

As a youth I used to stand out next to the street every time the trucks were coming by. I'm not saying that it caused my third eye growth but I am a bit suspicious.... :D

The gulley just across the main road to my current home was found to have West Nile carrying mosquitoes. They sprayed 3 straight nights directly into the area that was testing positive. It is my understanding that spraying 3 days in a row has been the most effective treatment for these beasts. I am acutely aware every time I get a bite and wait 14 days for the threat to pass. Usually, I have already been bitten again so basically I have been waiting since mid July to get the virus. My new neighbor moved in at the same time she was diagnosed with it. Most people get it and don't know it. It generally is more a burden on the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. Still it is one of the deadliest seasons on record.

[Valk]

My older brother ain't been right as long as I've know him. That could be it!

[WildBill]

We’re fortunate in our county that they do aerial sprays along with truck foggers when the mosquitoes get bad. That comes along with the territory when you live on the Gulf of Mexico.

What county is that? I lived in Seabrook about 7 years ago and the mosquitoes were very bad. I called the county and asked about spraying and was told that they didn't do that unless there was an outbreak. I never saw a helicopter or a spray truck the whole time I lived there.

[Valk]

Jefferson County.

We also had it really bad in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita. No power, no nothing! We sat outside in the 95 degree temps trying to catch a breeze and the mosquitoes were atrocious to say the least.

Uncle Sam did the spraying with C-130s!

[RPB]

When the trucks sprayed in Bellaire in the 1950s/1960s we were made to come inside.

Mom would take a pump hand sprayer full of DDT and fog all around the door so we could run through the DDT cloud and not let mosquitoes in when we ran in the door so we didn't get the truck's poison on us.
We sprayed it in the air around the garage to kitchen door every day just before running through it to go in the house

DDT was banned in the US in 1972

[RSJ]

Father just got diagnosed with WNV.... Luckily he is fighting it well.

Lives around 635 and DNT

[Valk]

Sorry to hear about your dad. I pray that he beats the illness.

[ffemt300]

I used to sell and install mosquito systems a few years ago mostly in the North Dallas/University Park areas. We'd run 1/4" tubing around the eaves of a house or pop-ups around bushes then install a special nozzle every 10-15 feet or so. The chemical is pyrethrine diluted with water. If I remember correctly, it was about a quart of the chemical into 50 gallons of water.

My co-worker once accidentally turned the system on while I was installing a nozzle and I took a bath in the stuff. Nothing happened. I wouldn't drink it but I don't think it's as harmful as some people think it is. On the plus side, I was mosquito-free for weeks after that!