(from a couple weeks ago in West Newsmagazine)
Just prior to the Dec. 12 public hearing on Ballwin’s 2023 proposed budget, a pair of residents voiced their concerns on one small section. Pat Mahon and Lori Bresnan share their concern regarding Ballwin’s long history of mosquito fogging. That topic is mentioned on page 121 of the city’s 168-page proposed budget.
"Pest control intends to minimize mosquito nuisance throughout the city," the budget proposal states. "Goals for the program include: 1) Fog both public and private streets weekly from mid-May through mid-September, and 2) Utilize larvacide tablets in standing water locations. This is performed under contract with St. Louis County."
It was the first point that both Mahon and Bresnan fervently protested.
“I work with ecology, native plants; basically anything that’s related to plants and plant sciences, and I had a concern from a Ballwin citizen this evening,” Mahon said. “Ballwin is still using mosquito foggers with permethrin, and I just wanted to review a few things about the broadband mosquito fogging. I used to work at Monsanto so I’ve worked with a lot of controversial chemicals. Permethrin is actually not that hazardous to human health. It can give rashes, but that’s not really the main concern of why I’m here.”
Instead, Mahon spoke of Missouri’s widespread interest in restoring native ecology with native plants. He noted that permethrin is an insecticide that is non-specific in its means of killing adult larvae and regular insects alike. He said flies, butterflies, bees and mosquitoes are all at risk.
“The way that foggers work, permethrin persists about 72 hours after the application,” Mahon said. “It moves into almost everybody’s yards. It kills a variety of insects, but is not very effective on its targeted one – the mosquito. There is very good mosquito control such as targeting the larval stages, and getting the public educated on getting rid of standing water. But the application of permethrin is old school. I know a lot of mosquito spraying companies like to promote it and sell it, and it can be effective if you do it in your own yard. But just driving down the street with fogging is not very effective.”
Mahon also mentioned his invitation to Grand Cayman Island for a 6-hour visit to the Queen Elizabeth Botanical Gardens. In that brief time period, they discovered that there was a broadband spread of permethrin throughout the island.
“It led to crop devastation in things we could view,” Mahon said. “One was actually an orchid that changed into a sub-species that was previously known only to be in the state of Florida. Now, we extended its range to that island because spreading permethrin killed all the native bees. We saw a bat dead. Permethrin can kill small mammals, and bats are known as a predator of mosquitoes. We actually had their endangered iguana species going over to that dead bat, which would have killed the iguana from that pesticide.”
Bresnan also was adamant about the need for Ballwin to remove the pest control items from the budget. She previously had spoken about the issue at a board meeting in February 2014.
“Fogging without having a specific reason and a specific threat, is not acceptable by the EPA, the CDC or the American Association for Fogging," Bresnan said. "Also, more is not better. The first thing to do is the larvicides. The county has been doing it for 10 years. It works really well. They’re monitoring. They know. They watch. They trap. They are testing each mosquito that they trap. They know how many. They know if they have West Nile. They know if they have Zika. If there is (any) in a certain boundary, they fog that (area).
"There is no reason to be doing otherwise, and it hasn’t been the standard for almost two decades. At this point in time, all these organizations that actually regulate the pesticides, they regulate the people who are handling the pesticides, and they all say that it is not acceptable to fog on a schedule and to fog without an actual threat. It is specific.”
Bresnan also spoke of a link she had on this very topic from the National Pesticide Information Center and the Environmental Protection Agency on a joint environmental study in conjunction with Oregon State University. She added that in previous years, Ballwin actually had the exact link on their own site in regard to mosquito fogging. The link notes suggestions for citizens to be indoors during the applications and to close their windows and doors, and to turn off air conditioning when the fog is going by so it is not pulled into the home. The precautions include bringing in outdoor pet food and water bowls, covering or removing children’s outdoor toys and fish ponds and baths. Staying out of the area until the pesticides dry is also suggested due to the fogging residues that are left behind.
“I don’t understand, the state doesn’t understand, the attorney doesn’t understand, and the scientist doesn’t understand why Ballwin is still fogging,” Bresnan said. “Is there any insight you can give me on why Ballwin is still doing so much of this?
"We have woods that are interspersed between everything, and those areas are where the mosquitoes are not killed by the fog; it becomes a part of them, then they become resistant and it’s a lot easier for them to breed. It’s happened in Florida, in Texas, and in a lot of other areas. And we are setting up the exact same position here to spread those areas out.”
During the budget public hearing, alderman Frank Fleming (Ward 3) noted that the Board of Aldermen had discussed the issue about a year ago in relation to notifying the county on whether or not the city wanted to use the county's program or to handle the mosquito problem itself.
“The fact is that it’s in the budget right now just allows for spraying if we decide to do that,” Fleming said. “We’ll probably discuss it again this spring."
Alderman Michael Finley (Ward 1) addressed the topic in his aldermanic comments.
“My colleagues probably know where I stand on the issue. I researched it a few times in my tenure on the board, and I recall there are five factors to take into consideration when you make your analysis," Finley said.
He noted that as the chairman of the board's Public Health and Safety Committee, he can be contacted any time at MFinley@ballwin.mo.us, regarding the topic. He added that he would also entertain the possibility of holding a committee meeting to address this issue with any research and comments from citizens.
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