Yesterday at the farmer’s market on my farm in Balch Springs, several farmers
and home gardeners were standing around talking about how the lack of
pollination on the vegetable plants this year was really hurting production.
The wildflowers and sunflowers in my pasture are missing usual pollinators except
for a few native bees from time to time. The edges of the pond are not filled
with thirsty honeybees or dozens of frogs and toads as in years past. The
squash, melons and cucumber blossoms at my farm and in yards across Mesquite,
Balch Springs and Dallas are not producing fruits as they normally should. Instead,
blossoms are falling off, un-pollinated, in areas where an excessive amount of
fogging and aerial spraying took place last summer - and around my farm where
we lost 90% of our hives this past winter. The immune systems of the bees compromised
from the intake of tainted pollen the summer before.
On tables of at least 2 vendors were handouts and flyers, mosquito
dunks and bits and lots of information about the fatal plight of the honeybees,
especially in light of the unnecessary spraying. Requiem
for a bee. You’ve seen the story by now about the Texas
Honeybee Guild’s crushing past year in the Dallas Advocate, countless other
magazines, television news programs and full length feature films. Or have you
been tuned out or tuned in only to the sensational media coverage of how we’ve
had or first human case of WNv and they were still alive – oh, no, wait, it wasn’t really WNv after all. But too
late, out come the trucks. Do you see how this all works?
And yet, in the professionally printed full color brochure
put out by the County of Dallas – no where in it does mention even once about
honeybees or how ordinary citizens can help the county eliminate the habitat
for mosquito breeding by using a simple, cheap, extremely effective and readily
available material.
BTi folks – dump it or dunk it! Do we let
standing water than can’t be dumped
or drained just stand there and breed mosquitoes? Do we call code compliance on
our neighbors who can’t afford to have their gutters cleaned out because they
are struggling to buy food and use a walker to stand? Do we complain to our
city about how bad the mosquitoes are in our neighborhood - where there are
endless abandoned horse troughs, swimming pools or creek areas that don’t have
enough moving water to keep them flushed out?
How about empowering the people to do something more
effective than douse themselves with DEET? (The CDC even mentions other FDA
approved ingredients to use on ones’ self and kids.) We have stood up in county and city meetings
time and again freely sharing hundreds of hours of research so officials don’t
have to look for it themselves. And what have they DONE with this information?
What has been done with the monies received for increasing the mosquito
abatement budget? Testing you say? Great – and what is being done more this
year than in past years to educate individuals about their role and then
telling those at-risk neighborhoods they need to step it up even more when
those test results start to climb? How
about a grading system so neighborhoods know how they rate when the test
results come in – and sharing those results with city departments so they can
be on the look out for potential breeding grounds?
How is it we can go from ground zero to ground spraying
before we even hit the 4th of July – and I’ve not received ONE
SINGLE piece of information in my mailbox or on my door, or seen any mention at
any cross street in my neighborhood about what we can do to prevent being doused with harmful
chemicals in our homes and yards? The
word is out about the dangers of the toxic chemicals. People are waking up
to the fact that the media likes to scare people with inflated headlines and
shocking news teasers. Children are asking questions. We are all asking more
questions. Like how
effective is spraying – really?
I would like to commend Scott, Zach and their outside
contractor Ron, for working with me last week to improve
a buffer zone around my farm’s perimeter – instead of taking a direct
fogging on the north border as on the original spray map, and for dropping off
literature for me to hand out at my farmers market. But what the heck new is being done this year? Where is
the gambusia
fish program for individuals’ ponds? Where are the new backpack sprayers or
truck mounted sprayers that are capable of accepting the less toxic materials
that Mr. Howard Garret and others have told officials about? What happened to
all of the funding and how is it being spent in cities that pay the county to
perform this daunting task of abating mosquitoes for them?
It’s time for new action folks. Our county can move faster
than this. It’s time we start looking around the country and even within our
own state, and adopt newer, safer and more effective ways to empower ourselves
against the archaic and dangerous ways of the old days. We have the technology,
information and manpower.
No one wants anyone to get sick, much less lose their life,
to a mosquito bite. But we’re doing a pretty dismal job at taking the bite out
of anything if we can’t move forward and empower the people and businesses to
be more proactive in their role, too, without risking millions of people to the
long term effects of spraying toxic chemicals on them. Let’s encourage retail
counter top displays of BTi dunks and bits and coupons from the manufacturer
on literature going to the public. I can’t tell you how many people at my
market don’t know that BTi dunks even exist, much less that it is a safe and
effective way to help them kill mosquito larvae in their yards – or tossed into
neighbor’s abandoned pool.
How about a few billboards saying DUMP IT or DUNK IT! around town? Town hall meetings with
neighborhoods in high-risk areas to educate people about what they can do in
their own yards to eliminate the breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
No one expects our government to be the silver bullet and
answer all of our life’s problems. But shouldn’t we expect them to be a source
of current information for the people and to effectively use funds to spread
the word about empowering citizens to help them take care of this problem? What
do you think? We can gather together for sporting events and other rallies. We
need more of you to gather around city council meetings, county meetings,
health department meetings – and any other open meeting that has anything to do
with mosquitoes, health of citizens and accountability. There are over 6
million of us living in DFW. The 15 or 20 of us who have led the way, can’t be
the whole march. Step up and do
your part – please. Get informed. Get armed with the tools you need to
protect your neighborhood and to eliminate the breeding and feeding ground for
this pest. Protect your home. Maybe because I started this farm from the scratch more or less, I'm a bit vigilant about it, but none of us wants our homes to be prey to toxic chemical attacks.
And tell the media you’re sick of scare tactics and misleading news stories. Isn’t it time we took things back to reality? The severe form of West Nile fever occurs in 1 in 150 people showing symptoms. You’d think it was as widespread as heart attacks from eating fast food and smoking. Neither of which we do much of anything about to prevent.
Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!
And tell the media you’re sick of scare tactics and misleading news stories. Isn’t it time we took things back to reality? The severe form of West Nile fever occurs in 1 in 150 people showing symptoms. You’d think it was as widespread as heart attacks from eating fast food and smoking. Neither of which we do much of anything about to prevent.