# Mosquito Control



## Stump Man (Mar 28, 2002)

I started using Talstar for adult mosquito control 2 years ago. Does super job with no smell. E-mail me if you would like more information


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## Reed (Mar 28, 2002)

Ya wanna know what I use for those little suckers?? (I live on central Texas, on the Pedernales River and have encephelitis in the area).

Twelve spoonfuls of olive oil covers over 1/2 acre of standing water in about three hours - millions of tube-breathing larvae suffocate and I have no problems. I'm rural, so there's no bug control authority around here (thank God).

For anything you feel the need to 'nuke' to control, I know there's an alternative. If you don't believe me, you have your own future to deal with. I listened for years to our experts tell me (worked for USDA Forest Service) everything's safe and nothing else works. It cost me over half a million bucks for a year of experimental chemo then a bone marrow transplant nine years ago. Every other of the swinging dicks that worked with me are dead - I thought I better pass that one on. We sprayed 2,4D - 2,4,5T, Glyphosphate, Tordon, Graze-on...and we washed religiously.


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## John Paul Sanborn (Mar 28, 2002)

Ya beat me to it, I was going to say cut rate cooking oil.


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## Holler Dave (Mar 28, 2002)

Sounds like a fairly cheap way to get rid of skeeters. How do you apply it? And does cheap coking oil work as well as olive oil? Sounds like a cheaper alternative to Bacillus Thermogensis.


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## Reed (Mar 28, 2002)

I also use your microbe in a pinch, but with oil, you just carefully ladle it on the water surface, it spreads out eventually, even blobs of floating oil make their way around.

You have to look for standing water, it's tricky but items like old tires, stock tanks, even paint can lids outdoors after a rain hold enough surface area H20 to hatch millions of the nasty little beasts. 

Another trick for when you're out in the field working somewhere is to let hang out of your back pocket a sheet of clothes dryer softener, a new one. Doesn't matter which brand, as long as it's scented. DEET, the ingredient used in OFF and CUTTER'S has been implicated (from Gulf War vet's studies) to exacerbate neurological problems. I don't want to sound like a worrying fanatic, but I've come to realize the hard way that everything promoted as "safe", isn't. I've had good luck with these sheets from the swamps of SC, Georgia, Florida to the north woods of Minnesota. Even worked in New Zealand!


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## Toddppm (Mar 29, 2002)

Very interesting. Just curious why you have to carefully ladle it? I would think you could just dump it in, floats on top doesn't it? Or do you want it to be coalesced? Whew had to look that word up


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## John Paul Sanborn (Mar 29, 2002)

I thought Bt was only effective on Lepidopterae.

What I do for small puddle control is use the same bottle I use on gypsy moth. Emulsify the oil just thin enough that a pump spray bottle will work. Then spray any posslble place. Don't forget house gutters that may have lost their pitch and hold water (unless the decades of leaves have formed a good humus that is growing poplar and box elder!).


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## Reed (Mar 29, 2002)

B therengeinsis, B pseudomonas, etc. won't work in an aquatic environment, but anytime a leaf eater consumes the innoculum the action takes place in their gut. BT has worked on ants, but I don't think it's consumed readily, it works on the food supply underground, after they culture the fungus they grow then eat.


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## Reed (Mar 30, 2002)

And....

here the lepidopthera is the feeding stage of the army worm, or the forest tent caterpiller - we know three weeks ahead of time when they'll get busy - the air is filled with their flight stage, but as I mentioned either here or another board they can consume acres of canopies but the timing (on their part) is early enough that the trees releaf before heat and sun get too high. Picnic folks and some homeowners still want them out (not to mention trees already in distress due to other factors) and these guys are the quickest and easiest to kill with the soap sprays.

A couple of (flambouyant) customers living in a (I'm not kidding) subdivision designed by and populated with gay folks wanted to know if we could scent our spray with lavender - so I stopped at a Bath and Bubble shop on our way there. All I found was rose crystals but apparently the neighborhod loved it. To each his own I reacon. We made sure everyone understood that although we smelled sweet, we were NOT gay. 

Every mission is an adventure the way I see it.


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## John Paul Sanborn (Mar 30, 2002)

No leather cahps on that job I take it 

Another problem with Bt is that you need to get it in the critter in one of the first few instars (?) . the larger cat's can shake the infection off.


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## Reed (Mar 30, 2002)

That's why I like soap so much - Bt will hold in suspension indefinately, it's crystalline in structure but it being carried from a surfactant that tastes nasty is counterproductive.

The trick in our using Bt and making certain it's injested is complicated due to the suspension - the soap film leaves a nasty tasting residue and one or two bites by a worm and he's out of there. That's why we decided to save the money, instead of purchasing the innoculant, we went back to soap entirely. What used to be a $350 - $500 spray job is now a $150 - $250 job. We 're not being exposed to toxins (Bt will at best give one a good case of the runs and/or a minor lung infection), we no longer need the State Pesticide Applicator's requirements, we can get in and out of a job in half the time, save big bucks, make customers happy - - in Austin, most people are very well aware of the dangers of AgChemicals - and smell good too!

The guy posting about skeeters and stump killing, I wonder about. I know some research scientists at Dow and Monsanto and the latest skuttlebutt is that the sales divisions are worried about the arbocare industry - they think they need to hit us up again with reminders (traditional Springtime sales tactic) that without carcinogens, life itself would be impossible. I know that industry all too well, I've experience in qualifying and detecting false data to make something look better than it is or manipulating data to deflect implicating health relationships.

All we have to do to verify if an alternative is better than the recommended treatments is to simply try it instead of asking the county agents or the research schools what we should be doing. 
I've had wonderful responses in our work.

Reed


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## John Paul Sanborn (Mar 30, 2002)

"Lies, ????ed lies and statistics"
-Benjamin Disreali, Victoirian era British PM

Lucky you, here in WI if you are uning anything for the express purpose of pest control, you SHALL be certified and licensed.


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## Reed (Mar 30, 2002)

Well, the feds taught me well. 

WE didn't advertise as pest control - word spread rather quickly down here (media attention helped, afterall, wilt is an epidemic) and the fact that ALAMO for wilt is 8-18 dollars per dia. inch and still the tree's die - we got plenty of attention. Awards helped too, along with saving the oaks over L.B.J's grave. 

When things got serious (Dept of Ag suits following us to treatments) I simply stated we're trying to wash the tree, you know, "hosing off all the pollution and stuff, making her smell better too". This pissed them off, I readily gave them samples, they quit bugging me eventually. 

Calls kept coming in from distant homeowners wanting to know if I was the guy who washed trees - "yeah, you got it", and we'd schedule work if only the neighbors too would let us spray - sometimes 150 miles (one way) has to be justified. The cost is generally no more than ChemLawn coming to give your plants a nitrogen addiction (if you cancel ChemLawn, you'll notice your lawn will die - chemical withdrawl). 

There is a difference between a licensed pesticide and a registered fertilizer. State Ag Depts. want all supplements to have a basic label, so with $15 per year, we registered "BioSave" (my bio-stimulant with trace N). The soap however, is babyfood. If someday the powers that be want total control (it's getting there, with machine guns to enforce them), the MSDS data won't be too hard to generate. It softens hands while you do trees!!

I have to admit - all the hundreds of billions in economy the AgChem industry deals with; all the stocks, bonds, deceit, lies, extortion, tests, results, more lies, deaths (and yeah, I consider cancer part of this industry because lots of the pharmaceutical industry IS the chemical industry), we have a pretty good time just rolling along, happily treating the poor sick trees with nothing more than a few bubbles and lemon (or rose if you're weird) scent. Oh, and getting results, that's a biggy.


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## John Paul Sanborn (Mar 30, 2002)

Potpourie of your choice.

At least we don't need a license to "fert". I've done seaweed and manure applications.


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## Holler Dave (Apr 1, 2002)

Oakwilt; What soap do you use? I brought up Bt because I saw on Lawnsite that someone said they had good luck using it for the skeeter larve. I live on 26 acres and I have 6 low lying areas that are sure breeding grounds for the larve. I would like to use a common household item if possible to help control the skeeters. I just may try the olive oil on half and the soap on the other 3 areas and see what happens. Just need to know your preferred brand of soap and will it do in the tadpoles? Thanks. Holler Dave.


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## John Paul Sanborn (Apr 1, 2002)

The soap is for feeding insects as a foliar application on the trees, cat's and aphids and such.

Get the cheapwst cooking oil you can find in bulk.

Assuming it is not as thick as reeds olive oil, then weel say tree oz per acre of water. A gallon should last you a while.

Just use a shotglass to measure into each pond, use a handcan to spray smaller with emulsified mix. Wathc for the suspention to coat the surface.


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## Holler Dave (Apr 11, 2002)

Thanks JPS for the info but more is needed. How long will this last on the surface...If it rains do you need to reapply...What is the optimun time to apply....What does it do to other lifeforms in the applied area. In Michigan we never know if spring is here to stay or not. If we get a freeze and then a thaw of the wet area does this affect application? Thanks. Holler Dave.


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## Reed (Apr 11, 2002)

apply a short time after a rain - by the way, studies show that rainfall also drowns the snorkle-breathing larvae - zillions of them. It's the standing water underneath things that allow for astronomical reproduction. 

I remember Minnesota skeeters all too well. One night I was doing something (never mind what it was) and couldn't use either of my hands to swat them suckers off my face - i was wearing a fur mask made out of live feeding skeetoes. Ouch.


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