My future inlaws have me over to help them and I've noticed some services they pay for by being here recently. One of them is a pesticide service called Mosquito Joe and they spray Bifen. The technician left a piece of paper that stated he was here but didn't say the time AND he sprayed when it was still dewy everywhere.
I'm concerned for the wildlife here and am hoping people can advise me on how to address this with my future inlaws whom don't appear to be privvy of nature conservation. I'm still wanting to try.
Today it rained and I've attached photos of all the wildlife that is out and about in their yard today along with how their yard looks when it rains.
They live in the eastern part of the midwest in the suburbs of a city.
Any and all advice on how too approach it, healthy alternatives to prevent mosquitoes, and anything else you think would be useful.
by AstralAly
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Frog hotel
So I’m not on board with spraying for mosquitoes, but I am also sympathetic to your future in-laws, because they live in the beating heart of mosquito territory on a property that’s basically a wetland. There is no “healthy approach to preventing mosquitoes” in a wetland in the Midwest. Before we built a city there it was a healthy, functioning ecosystem with bats and dragonflies and mosquito eating birds in excess, and there would still have been millions of mosquitoes. They were there by the million before europe knew about this continent. They will be there by the million long after our civilization fades into obscurity.
They can do all the things – encourage a healthy ecosystem, build bat boxes, drain standing water from their property, use dunks where it is safe and legal to do so. But I’m sorry to tell you that in a place like that it will be like trying to empty the ocean with a bucket. That is why people spray.
The only additional thing they could look into is a propane powered mosquito vacuum to actually suck up and kill the adult, biting females. Theres no science to confirm whether they actually reduce overall populations in the area, but if you believe the testimonials (and I take those with a grain of salt), people claim they make a difference. They’re expensive AF though and go through an entire propane tank every couple of weeks.
ETA: I looked Bifen up. Good news is that its toxicity to mammals is pretty low, and it’s extremely hydrophobic so it doesn’t tend to contaminate bodies of water as it won’t dissolve into it. The bad news is that it does hang out in the soil for a while, which can get washed into bodies of water, and even tiny amounts of it are extremely toxic to fish and other aquatic animals, though I can’t find anything that conclusively says whether that includes amphibians. It’s at least probably not great to use around bodies of water that have fish in them.
If live next to a creek and don’t want mosquitoes, their best bet is to move.
mosquito dunks are dope. i used to have a cheap kiddy pool in the woodline behind my house that i set up for frogs to use, but the mosquitos ended up being the first takers. got some dunks & wiped out the skeeters but the tadpoles were a-ok fine. there’s also loads of gadgets you can get to help keep mosquitos off your person (+ bug spray exists lol) if the dunks dont dent your populace well enough.
as far as compelling them to be more mindful of their non-human neighbors, im not sure!! in a vaccum, id probably try the approach of framing the creek as a spot of interest for your inlaws +/- any company they might have on a given day. some people travel the world over just to spot critters that are already in their yard, why risk potentially spoiling that to (futilely) reduce mosquitos?? alternatively, if theyre outdoors-y types you could just plan to “tour” them around and highlight some nice native species they could easily encourage along; if they fish/hunt/forage then you can just frame it as them potentially harming those ventures for themselves in the immediate area. tough to say cuz idk em lol but good luck
You will not get rid of mosquitos in that environment, but this also means the sprayer is doing nothing but killing beneficial bugs. Mosquito sprayers do NOT work, as they only kill things in the moment they are sprayed, so it give you no protection while you are in your lawn. They also only spray during business hours when no mosquitos are there. It makes no sense.
They need to instead try to keep mosquitos off of them. We have a screen porch; which is fire 🔥. Next long sleeves. Next big spray on me. (Repellant.) If they are insistent on spraying, you need to have the active agent present at the same time as you are there (because mosquitos can fly). You can do this cheaper than a commercial sprayer with thermocell, which will actually help their problem with a much lower chemical burden than a jet pack sprayer weekly. Mosquito Joe is a a money collection company.
Wow, this is really sad. I really hope you can convince them otherwise. If they were my in-laws, it would severely strain our relationship.
Bring back the stocks lol
I would direct them to mosquito dunks and highlight that they’re still learning a lot about these chemicals. I wouldn’t be surprised if scientists find a connection to cancer in coming years. I often use human health to advocate for environmental issues as it tends to get more traction.
“Potential Health Effects
Humans occupationally exposed to bifenthrin report
mild effects such as skin tingling or eye irritation. In
studies on laboratory animals, exposure to high levels
of bifenthrin affected the nervous system, causing
tremors in animals. Animals exposed to very high
levels of bifenthrin developed bladder cancer;
however, cancer is not likely to occur at lower
exposure levels.
MDH developed a Pesticide Rapid Assessment value
of 2 parts per billion (ppb) for bifenthrin in drinking
water. A person drinking water at or below this level
would have little or no risk of health effects. Based on
the screening assessment, available information on
bifenthrin is likely sufficient for a full review; however,
it is ranked lower than other nominated CEC chemicals
at this time.”
https://www.health.state.mn.us/communities/environment/risk/docs/guidance/dwec/screening/bifenthrin.pdf
Mosquito dunks work much better
The way those companies lie is crazy too. The techs out here telling me “we can also seal up all the holes around your crawlspace”. When you push them on it, it turns out they’re just applying pesticide granules around base of the perimeter walls of your house and not actually sealing anything. I think most of my neighbors fog for mosquitoes. It’s pretty sad.
Put up some bat houses for mosquito control if you can get them to quit spraying.
Is the EPA even a thing anymore?
JFC humans really are vial and disgusting creatures to everything from each other to the very planet that sustains us.
I hate even bringing this up here but there is a way to eliminate all mosquitos in an area without using sprays. It’s called “attractive toxic sugar bait” and costs pennies to make, it’s a 20% sugar, 3% boric acid solution you put in bait stations (a sponge in a box with a mesh grid to exclude bees etc). It induces near 100% mosquito mortality within days, is harmless to vertebrates including fish (in vertebrates, boric acid is about as toxic as table salt in similar doses).
BUT. For insects, it’s totally non-selective and will kill any invertebrate that ingests it including butterflies, bees, hover flies, wasps, and all other nectar-feeders. Methods to reduce attractiveness to non-target species’ are being worked (e.g. bait boxes) but are not guaranteed.
So for now it is probably best restricted to areas with malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases.
Research articles: [Chiu et al 2024](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0001706X23002899), [Kumar et al 2022](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35708404/), [Revay 2014](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3945672/) — this has work on bait stations nearly eliminating non-target uptake, but used a different insecticide. [Zhang et al 2025](https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/16/3/258) used a drosophila trap for their bait.
What the fuck is in that stream 💀💀 i see a TAIL
I would ask them about it? Bifen isn’t just for mosquitos, it’s for termites, ticks, fleas, etc. There’s probably just a lack education but they might also see the benefit outweighing the risk. Not sure how prevalent ticks or termite infestations are in the area, but pesticide use is high where I live to protect assets/food supply. It will be a difficult sell if they are intending to say, prevent a termite infestation (which I’d assume the chemicals used for that treatment would be exponentially worse than preventative treatment) vs just not wanting to be bit by mosquitos.
Pest control isn’t exactly *my* cup of tea and I definitely die a little inside when I see it used, but not everyone is going to look at it the same way. At least if a technician is doing it, theyre unlikely to be spraying randomly and in high doses.
You could suggest mosquito buckets (or poison them for revenge?) – just saw a think from homegrown national parks today on mosquito buckets
Let them breathe their poison. They deserve it
BTI is cultured bacteria that infects mosquitos and other biting flies in their larval stage. This turns mosquito habitat into traps. Reducing plastic trash and other sites for breeding, and putting BTI granules or dunks into those that cant be removed (ponds, gutters, etc), will reduce mosquitoes much more than the toxic sprays they are wasting money on. Less than 1 part per million of that poison reaches a target species, and the rest just goes on to kill non target species and cause cancer in people.
On a related note, mosquitos are the primary pollinators of blueberries and huckleberries in the PNW. The males only eat nectar, the females are the ones that bite to get protein for their young. Both pollinate white, purple and blue flowers. No mosquitos, no wild huckleberries, which may be the best food on Earth.
moving next to a creek when you have mosquitos is a crazy move on your inlaws part
You might call your local EPA office. There might be laws prohibiting spraying of that type in riparian buffer areas like your in-laws yard appears to be.
Check the sprayer’s license.
Check the labels.
If anything is off, where they are not following the label report them. They are most likely spraying other inappropriate places as well.
I agree with hobby, some people listen better to wallet vs enivromental facts. So need to tell them that mosquito spraying does not work. Mosquitos can travel a very far distance from their ponds too. (My backyard has this issue lol)
The spraying is basiclly a scam that only works short term. If they don’t want to pay into a basiclly protection racket they can learn some ways to repel them. Thermacell sells battery operated/ rechargeable repellers probally cheaper than what they are paying to the nuker company.
If they dont mind using spray, there a alot of them!
And screen neting in their area they want to chill can also prevent mosquitoes.
Ugh this property is beautiful! I don’t understand how you can live somewhere like this but just feel like you can make the bugs disappear and everything will be fine. Why not just live in the city lol. My parents built their house along a protected marsh and would spray for mosquitoes. They don’t do it anymore since my mom looked into the harmful effects these chemicals had. No advice to give, just bummed at this mentality
I love sharing this article with people to explain why spraying is the last thing you want to do:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/how-pesticides-actually-increase-mosquito-numbers
They should plant a rain garden in that area that ponds/floods between the trees that’s just dirt. That will help reduce standing water
Mosquitos will breed in a bucket of water if it’s available. They’re better off just making sure there isn’t standing water anywhere.
Like others said, there are solutions that would help like building a rain garden or overflow area that water moves through.
And make sure there aren’t buckets or areas that pool water that can’t drain/move.
Not sure where you live but I assume there must be state/provincial and federal Water Acts that prevent pesticides from being sprayed within a set distance of waterbodies. This could be breaking those laws.
Im apart of the subreddit so you know where I stand but I will say they’ve likely been doing this for years if you think it is flourishing it is likely the state of the creek with the mosquito treatment. Thats gonna be a tough sell for them. They’ve gotta be sold on the big picture which I imagine people who are treating their yard like this aren’t.