I believe that Temecula was sprayed with the new class of insecticides – IGRs

Dragonflies; some of the best mosquito predators around, should be coming out of the water this time of year.

Many species of dragonflies have spent the winter as larvae in the water. In the spring they crawl out on a leaf, or branch, or rock. Then they split their skin, crawl out, and expand their wings just like a butterfly does. Once their wings have dried, they fly away to become some of the best mosquito predators around.

They thus leave their larval skin shell behind.

I have seen only one correctly pupated dragonfly shell this spring but I do keep seeing dead larva like the one shown in my hand in the picture.

They float to the top and have an orangeish appearance in their tissues that is unusual. They are all the age that they should climb out and transform into dragonflies but instead they die.

This is the classic behavior of the action of a certain class (IGRs) of insecticides on insects.

From Wikipedia:
— The insecticides ….

that inhibit ecdysone can cause pupal mortality by interrupting the transformation of larval tissues into adult tissues during the pupal stage.[4]

The Aquatic systems I’m looking at are well away from any agricultural area and quite diverse. And it is thus my opinion that there has been aerial spraying of IGR insecticides in the Temecula area.

This is annoying to me on several levels. First: It kills the very mosquito predators that we want. It thus promotes the jobs of the vector control bureaucrats.

But it also negates the efforts that so many people are making to assist the monarch butterfly population.

This class of insecticide also target’s butterflies, such as Monarchs.

Bob
PuraVidaAquatic.com