Birds and Bees and Mosquitos and Fleas

I am a mosquito magnet. I joke with my friends that if they want to avoid mosquito bites, then they should stand near me - all the bugs will flock to me instead of them. You might think that I should be concerned about West Nile Virus, but I'm actually much more concerned about the measures my county plans to take to control the mosquito population.

Up here on the East Coast, the local media treat WNV as if it were akin to the plague. The truth is that "Most individuals infected with West Nile virus will not have any symptoms or signs of illness. People who do develop illness may experience mild symptoms such as fever, headache, and body aches; occasionally a skin rash and swollen lymph glands may be noticed.... Less than 1% of persons infected with the virus may develop more severe disease with symptoms such as high fever, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, paralysis, and, rarely, death. People > 50 years of age have the highest risk of developing severe illness." (This is from the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's West Nile Virus fact sheet.)

Compare the symptoms of WNV to the possible side effects of permethrin, which is the chemical my county uses in residential spraying. You may have seen permethrin before - it's used in indoor flea control products, head lice shampoo, and termiticides. Pretty disturbing, considering that "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified permethrin as a carcinogen because it causes lung tumors in female mice and liver tumors in mice of both sexes. Permethrin inhibits the activity of the immune system in laboratory tests, and also binds to the receptors for a male sex hormone. It causes chromosome aberrations in human and hamster cells." (This is from the Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides.)

Additionally, the Coalition reports that "Permethrin is toxic to honey bees and other beneficial insects, fish, aquatic insects, crayfish, and shrimp. For many species, concentrations of less than one part per billion are lethal." Personally, I'd rather weather some aches and pains than risk killing off even more bees and adding harmful chemicals to the Chesapeake Bay.

I plan to write the Maryland Department of Agriculture to request that my area not be sprayed. I won't be satisfied, however, if they still spray all around me. My goal over the next couple of weeks is to talk to my neighbors and see if I can't get them to write the Department as well. I'll let you guys know what happens. (If you want to find out what your county is doing to control pests this summer, call your state's department of health or agriculture; you can also search online for your state's government web page and navigate to one of those departments.)

In the meantime, I plan to use mosquito repellent to protect myself from the pesky critters. When my daughter was born, I sought an effective repellent that would be safe for her to use as well. I settled on Bite Away by Southeast Beauty Inc, which you can order from Gaiam.com. It's basically soybean oil mixed with a little safflower, coconut, lemon, grapefruit, and lime. Because it is oil-based, it is a bit greasy, but it seems to be pretty effective in my experience. If it works for me, it'll probably work for anybody!

Happy Memorial Day!
Jenny