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GRAFTON, Mass. — It’s been a great summer for mosquitoes. Thanks to a warmer than normal winter, their season began in March.
Should Grafton return to mosquito spraying?
-
Yes
83% -
No
17%
In turn, it has been a busy season for the Massachusetts Department of Health. Warnings to residents about the threat of Eastern Equine Encephalitis and West Nile virus have stretched around the state. In central Massachusetts, there have been recent alerts sent out in Westborough, Grafton, Northborough, Shrewsbury, and Southborough.
The Board of Selectmen invited Timothy Deschamps, Executive Director of the Central Mass Mosquito Control Project, to discuss reinstating Grafton into the membership program. If agreed by them, followed by a majority vote at Town Meeting, it would mean a return since Grafton dropped the program in 1990. Back then, the town voted to discontinue the spraying because a majority believed it was ineffective, expensive, and potentially harmful to the environment.
“The program has come a long way since Grafton dropped out,” said Deschamps.
He emphasized that spraying is more targeted now, with a pesticide that contains, in his words, a “non-residue” formula so plants are not harmed. He said small amounts will be used and will be tailored to meet individual needs of each resident.
“So if I want my yard sprayed, but my next door neighbor does not, you can do that?” asked Selectman David Ross.
Deschamps said a GPS system would be used to make sure neighbors who do not want the spraying, would be honored.
If the town were to rejoin the program, it would cost $60,000 per season with a three year commitment. Neighboring communities of Worcester, Upton, and Sutton have, like Grafton, also opted out of the program. However, 40 communities in Worcester and Middlesex counties participate. The control project is a Massachusetts state agency that falls under the State reclamation and Mosquito Control Board, an agency in the Department of Agricultural Resources.
The program would include not just spraying, but also focus on larval control in still water where mosquitoes hatch, such as in ditches and man-made ponds. They would also set mosquito traps around town to spot potential virus alerts. Deschamps said that the Mass. Department of Health, due to budget cuts, is relying on his organization more each year to spot West Nile and EEE threats.
The selectmen will decide in a future meeting if they believe the town should vote to reinstate their membership for the 2013 season.
Comments (9)
I thought I read somewhere that 1/3 of people that contract EEE will DIE!
But hey...at least we saved a bee :-)
Aeriel spraying is the only effective way to kill misquitos throughout a community. The State has used this method for triple E in S.E. MA.
This discussion by our Selectmen is not encompassing of all the health factors and thus it is as poisonous, as it is effective.
Let's talk about aerial spraying and do it right!
If Massachusetts can do it for S.E. MA, then they can do it for us "farmers" in Central, MA.
yes as long as it doesn't damage other essential insects ie..dragonflies, ladybugs, butterflies or children, pets or bats.
Yes I think this may actually have been acted on at least twice. First to get out of the program, and then later against a proposal like this one to rejoin the program. Costs, environmental damage, and inability to accurately control what was spayed were factors, but I thought also a major issue for Grafton was that the program only touched limited areas near the roads. The spray did not carry back off the roads very far. In densely populated areas it could be reasonably effective if most properties were sprayed, but it left a very large part of the town untreated because of properties that opted out, and lots of area back off the roads. The mosquitos were thought to breed and live in those areas that were not sprayed, and fly to adjacent ones had been sprayed. The fairly considerable costs vs people's actual experience of relatively little real effect made people feel it was not a good expenditure. It seemed people felt the program may make more sense in communities that are more densely populated than we are.
I say we just wait until Sutton, Upton, and Worcester sign up, and our problems will be fixed - we're surrounded by places that pay for the service. Kinda like letting your neighbors put up a fence, and then getting a dog.
Absolutely Grafton should reintroduce mosquito control measures. The health and safety of our community should be the guiding reason. We have a crisis situationwith the viruses that should be met with deliberate speed.
If it will require a Town Meeting vote then the earliest the program could start would be near the end of October. So it would not make any significant difference this year anyway, right?
I remember growing up in New Jersey, when the mosquito control squad would drive through, blaring their horns to alert us to run inside and close our windows so that we wouldn't breath in any of the spray. No thank you.
I don't use chemicals on my lawn and I don't want chemicals in my air. These measures are toxic, and they threaten the health of all of us. And the idea of going house by house for opt-outs is ludicrous. If I say no, but my neighbor says yes, will the air be respectful and stay on its own side of the fence? Not on the windy ledge where I live.
If I remeber correctly, the Board of Health had tried to get the Town back into the CMMCP twice in recent years, but it was voted down at Town Meeting each time. Much of the concern at the time was the honeybee population being affected by the pesticide. Recent studies have shown that the honeybee population is being affected by a virus. From my research, the CMMCP strives to use pesticides that are not harmful to other animals and plants. With the large increase in WNV or EEE positive mosquitos, animals and humans, the Town would be wise to join the CMMCP again. Hopefully no one in Town will get sick from WNV or EEE before then. They are nasty viruses!