People on non-toxic Studio City (facebook) have started becoming concerned about aerial spraying for zika in Los Angeles
Good for them! But reading some of their posts has brought back memories of my attempt to communicate with Orange County vector control. Below is a transcript of that interaction but briefly: I looked at their sources, their references for why they needed to spray and the only one that was even valid was from 1964
1964! and I questioned how it was even done and got a response that was nothing but a bunch of gobbledygook. They sent a bunch of pointless and illogical references to “prove their point”. I’ll call them idiots. Apparently they can’t even analyze their own data sources and insist that they have to spray everyone’s backyard organic garden.
[Transcript]
From: me
Date: Aug 16, 2016 12:39 PM
Subject: quote about mosquito egg desiccation
To:
Cc:
Xxx
I hope you are well! I may have been the instigation for questions regarding your quote about mosquito egg desiccation in the Orange County Register. I hope you didn’t take it personally. I received a copy of your response where you gave the following reference
>
> http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jvec.12167/full
>
Your above reference is primarily about relative humidity factors but gives the following reference for mosquito egg survivability upon desiccation
Desiccation resistance has been explored in Ae. aegypti, with eggs surviving up to eight months (Meola 1964).
1964??? Nothing better :-)
This reference is unfortunately seriously flawed. The authors state that. …
All the eggs collected were assumed to
correspond to Ae. aegypti because this is the only container breeding Aedine mosquito species in this region
Mosquitoes hatching were _assumed_?? to be Ae. aegypti. Rates were as low is 2 – 7% and none of the hatching larvae were tested genetically for being Ae. aegypti
OMG One way of looking at this is simply that this was a selection for contaminating mosquito eggs.
There have been other studies involving desiccation but the ones I have looked at have serious issues as well.
Your primary reference above used high relative humidities in most cases. It also looked at saturation deficit of the ambient air.
Survival times of mosquito eggs appear to be reliant not only on relative humidity, but more specifically, the saturation deficit of the ambient air. This measure of atmospheric moisture takes the temperature-dependent water-holding capacity of air into account. The comparative desiccation studies by Sota and Mogi (1992) revealed eggs of the various Aedes species had higher survival rates at low saturation deficits and decreased survival rates at higher saturation deficits. The importance of saturation deficit on mosquito vectors is reflected in simulation modeling by Focks et al. 1993 who found that high humidity is correlated with high rainfall and temperature
I’m not sure that high humidity and high rainfall is a common anual occurrence in Southern California :-) (Maybe in Florida!)
I am sure that you are passionate about keeping us safe from mosquitoes here in Southern California but I am concerned that the chemicals are doing more damage than the mosquitoes. I personally use my PhD in microbiology to raise dragonfly larvae :-)
Best to you
[End of transcript]
And the response I got was complete trash. They aren’t interested in doing something for a reason they just want to promote their own jobs. And keep you from having an organic garden in your own backyard by spraying the snot out of us by airplane and helicopter.
sigh