As mosquitos thrive with climate change, more Americans resort to professional yard spraying. But some scientists fear over-use of pesticides is harming pollinators and worsening a growing threat to birds that eat insects.
CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Mich. — It’s an increasingly familiar sight in U.S. cities and suburbs: A van pulls up to the curb. Workers wearing gloves, masks and other protective gear strap on backpack-type mechanisms with plastic hoses, similar to leaf blowers.
Marty Marino of Michigan's Cascade Township looks over his yard following an essential oil insecticide spray treatment by a Mosquito Joe crew on July 20, 2022.But the chemical bombardment is beginning to worry scientists who fear over-use of pesticides is harming pollinators and worsening a growing threat to birds that eat insects.
Spraying companies, which have been multiplying with the surging demand, say they try to minimize pollinator losses but acknowledge there’s collateral damage. With climate change, Michigan’s mosquito season is about a month longer at the beginning and the end than a few decades ago, as warm-weather varieties increasingly turn up, entomology professor Edward Walker of Michigan State University said.
“It was all over the media,” said Markowski, and “made a lot of pest control companies say, ‘Holy cow, I could make a lot of money with residential services.’”Many companies use a “residual barrier” strategy, spraying pesticide around the perimeter of a property that typically lasts several weeks. When mosquitoes settle on the bushes or trees, they get a lethal dose.
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