Message from HV Environment Chairperson

Protect our Beautiful Pond

A question was posed from one of our members about the safety of products sold by the company Mosquito Squad. The products they advertise are what they call “Mosquito control barrier protection” and “All natural protection.” Geoff Blackett, our environmental chairperson has spent the last week researching this. His findings are below:

“Mosquito control barrier protection’ is an insecticidal spray the active ingredient of which is a pyrethroid insecticide. It is apparently effective in killing mosquitoes and ticks with little direct effect on birds or mammals. It is however toxic to a wide variety of insects including bees, butterfly larvae, spiders, and worms. It is also highly toxic to fish and other aquatic life.

The “All natural protection” product uses cedar oil as the active ingredient to repel mosquitoes and ticks. From what I have read, it appears to be relatively safe. I wasn’t able to find any test results on its effectiveness.

As far as any kind of recommendation for folks around Lower Beech Pond, I would definitely recommend against using the pyrethroid based insecticide due to its indiscriminate killing of insects and its toxicity on aquatic life. The cedar oil based barrier appears to be relatively non-toxic though its effectiveness is unclear. (The company in its literature states that it is less effective than the pyrethroid based product.)

Below are a number of links for additional reading. Geoff also has an email from the company that lists active ingredients in their products that I can forward if anyone wishes. Please contact Geoff Blackett for the information.

https://colinpurrington.com/2018/09/buzz-on-mosquito-sprays/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bifenthrin Active ingredient in their spray

https://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/reregistration/fs_PC-040505_1-Sep-93.pdf cedar wood oil info

https://www.animal-pestcontrol.com/cedar-oil-in-pest-control/ cedar oil effectiveness

http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/PermGen.html permethrin fact sheet

https://www.epa.gov/mosquitocontrol/permethrin-resmethrin-d-phenothrin-sumithrinr-synthetic-pyrethroids-mosquito-controlype your paragraph here.