this kind off stuff gets me so angry! since I was a little kid I would not allow the exterminator spray my room…my mom allowed me to do that. (now that I have my own place I have no exterminators into my residence)
exposing anyone especially little kids to these chemicals is nuts!
http://www.local10.com/news/doral-field-sprayed-with-ant-killer-before-easter-egg-hunt
Ever stepped on a fire ant hill? They can send children to the hospital. Better to spray.
They sprayed before the event and on the day of the event diluted the spray and did spot spraying.
@gouf78 Not just to the hospital, but to the morgue. A number of infants and small children have been killed by fire ants, and of course people die every year from allergic reactions, similar to those from bee stings.
It’s not an either/or. If you can’t make the field safe, don’t use it! I’d be horrified if I found out a place that my (or anyone’s) small kids were running around, picking things up, sitting, eating candy, etc, had just been sprayed with pesticides.
garland …I agree!
also the “spot” treatment and dilution is what they said after the fact. not sure I would take them at their word.
Exposure to pesticides has been linked to Parkinson’s disease.
^^Statements like that drive me nuts. Depends on pesticides and exposure!!
Does your cat/dog get treated for fleas?
Just something I looked in to because my father had Parkinson’s. It’s a legit risk factor, not an anti-vax level of paranoia.
http://www.parkinsons.org/parkinsons-risk-factors.html
Since I live in the south, my dog has to get the pill for fleas. Trifexis, I believe.
I would have been furious if my children had been exposed to pesticides in that manner when they were small. Why did they choose a location for the event that requires the spraying? Unfortunately our society has a very casual attitude toward pesticides and herbicides etc. One shouldn’t assume that just because products are on the market that exposure to them is safe. I read a few reputable studies several years ago linking flea collars to childhood cancers.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23184105
We would never have even considered using pesticides around our kids, especially at such a young age. That’s not hysteria, that’s science.
“Linking flea collars to childhood cancers”–that’s a problem. I wouldn’t put a flea collar on my kid.
Uhuh, @gouf78, but the concern is young children playing with family pets that wear flea collars
It still very much depends on which pesticide. The pyrethroid used in this case is hardly toxic to humans. If it was something like dieldrin, then yeah you have a problem. Luckily insect physiology is not similar to to human physiology.
Garland, yes, it is science, and I do not advocate for spraying kids with pesticides. But it drives me nuts when people cite abstracts with general terms and don’t even take the time to dissect the papers for relevant data! “Pesticides” is a diverse class of structurally different compounds; they have different modes of action and yes, some are way more dangerous than others. Everything - even table salt - has LD50!
I have seen people spray bug spray around their house like it is nothing more than water. the same people also think eating a big mac once a week will shorten their life span.
When my kids were little, my husband and I decided not to use any herbicides on our lawn because we were concerned about possible adverse effects. As a result, clover and dandelions grew throughout the lawn and attracted bees. The kids were stung by bees when playing outside multiple times. Eventually, we found it necessary to minimize outdoor play in the yard to avoid the bee stings, and I took the kids to local playgrounds instead. But the playgrounds were undoubtedly treated with pesticides, and the total amount of healthful outdoor play that the kids got to enjoy was considerably less than it would have been if they had been able to play in the yard.
Did we make the right choice or the wrong choice in terms of the overall impact on our kids’ health? Beats me.
I was going to bring up lawncare – how do you think all those suburban perfection lawns happen? The Pesticides on your lawn and sprayed to keep insects away aren’t any better, but God forbid there be ants or dandelions.
For us, it’s not just the exposure as humans, it’s the runoff and the damage to insects that made us not bend to the pressure. So we, in partner with one neighbor, are happily spray-free. Oh, the looks we get! When my other neighbors’ dog died, in her grief she came to ask if we had sprayed our lawn with something that killed Muffy. I just laughed and said does this lawn LOOK like we spray it with anything? She sniffled and said “oh, thats right, you have weeds” Like it was ebola…
my house is bug spray free
The frog population is also affected. When we moved to the home we had before this one, there was a gorgeous area with a natural lake, river, stream, and 2 ponds down a hill behind our home. Our previous property, which had much of the same, had many spring peepers, wood frogs, green frogs, etc. As a nature lover, I was ecstatic! Spring was a wonderful time; the chorus of all of those frogs meant warm weather was here at last! However, at our new property, it was silent. Perplexed, I asked a couple different naturalists and a scientist separately. They all confirmed my suspicions: fertilizers and pesticides used by our neighbors (not by us–I’ve never liked them) had killed off the spring peepers and wood frogs. There were still some green frogs, but not as many as there should be. How devastating!
I wish people would think about how these chemicals are affecting our world, from the tiniest insects, to the bees, to the frogs, and, yes, to us!
I remember years ago talking to an Orkin man about controlling carpenter ants. He told me that after he was done, I wouldn’t have to worry about ants or squirrels or any other varmints. I decided to go another route.