I was at the NABA park for our monthly meeting today. The mosquitoes were ferocious. We all had on 25% deet spray and they'd hover around our ears and eyes just looking for a place to bite. They also literally covered our backs and pants legs when we walked through the thicket. It's a good thing we wear those safari shirts with netting and flaps!!! I had on a long sleeved shirt with a long tail on top of that just for added protection.
Even with the skeeters so bad the park was really rocking with lots of butterflies. I put out bait early and it brought some rare ones out. We counted four Gray Crackers and one Guatemalen Cracker. One White Scrub Hairstreak and a couple of Cyna Blues were nectaring on croton too. Must've been at least 50 Giant Swallowtails too - saw lots of egg laying on the native Baretta bushes.
We've been advised by the Tx Dept. of State Health Services targeted post-Hurricane Dolly aerial spraying for mosquitoes will be begin Sunday night from 10pm - 6am daily for several days in parts of Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy counties until the 1.1 million acres identified for skeeter control in the three counties are covered.
They said they would avoid the directly spraying TPW lands and we assume that includes the FWS lands as well. Bee keepers have been advised to take precautions - am wondering how they will do that?
I've been gathering whatever eggs and caterpillars I find in my yard and will raise them indoors. Plants will no doubt receive a fallout from the spraying :o(
Am sorry other insects will get killed but the mosquitoes are really bad. This area has had previous incidents of west nile, encephalitis and dengue fever and all the flooding and standing water now puts the area in peril again.
~ Cat
Mosquito spraying to start in south Texas
