WIN!
Just in the 5 days since first making my bee club aware of spraying at our local schools, writing letters to the school district and school board members, alerting the media (both print and television - I declined an on-air interview and hive tour–my wife is a district employee) and ultimately having our club president address the school board this evening while concurrently holding our club meeting and having the pest control agency rep in the hot seat - The district has put a halt to the mosquito spraying!!!
Score one for beekeepers and the bees!
I am so glad I started this thanks for the encouragement @Michael_Bush@Dawn_SD
BTW the local Atlanta ABC affiliate will be interviewing the club president tomorrow. Dude would not stop calling me.
The pest Control company owner just got off the phone with me.
He is a truly nice guy and his heart is in the right place. He sounded defeated and it seemed he wanted me to know that he isn’t bad.
Told him I never thought he was. I also told him that if he changed angles and only treated at dusk in a true effort to reduce impact on pollinators, he’d open up a whole new market.
I am truly delighted, Bobby. You put huge effort in, and it paid off. Even better, it can be used as a model by others in future if this insanity takes hold elsewhere in the US. Great kudos to you!
On a you-re-not-gonna-believe-this note, contacting this individual played a critical role -(the one with the goatee - not the dude smelling his armpit, the ref or the fella apparently having his leg broken)
I’ve been watching the news each evening concerning mosquito spraying within the DFW area. It was just announced last night and this morning that Dallas County will likely start mosquito spraying via an airplane soon. Looking for measures that may help me retain my hive.
I’ve done some research and what I found is:
I could put some sort of net I have not found one yet I’m told it is potentially sold at some bee outlets. Now that I’m writing this post I will stop and go look.
I saw someone rig up a misting system over there hive, to potentially full the bees into thinking it’s raining. It potentially does 2 different things if it does full the bees, great they’ll stay in the other it helps wash off any of the contaminants that may fall around them.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated, hopefully they will decide not to fly over my area
In San Diego, if you register your hives, the City will tell you when they are spraying insecticides. I don’t know if Dallas does this too, but San Diego usually borrows ideas from other cities, so I wouldn’t be surprised. Might be worth finding out and registering - at least then you will get some warning.
Yes, I’m sure Dallas has the same type of program. I will be fully aware of exactly where the planes fly, they publicize it well in advance of any flying. They give street by street indication at least a day in advance and then areas about a week in advance.
thanks for the encouragement
