Local News

The Air Force is Flying Over Harris County to Treat Mosquitoes

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Tony Maples Photography

 

ABC 13 writes that “…the U.S. Air Force Reserve’s 910th Airlift Wing flying modified C-130 cargo planes staged out of Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio…” are assigned to fly over parts of Harris County to release a spray to kill mosquitoes and their eggs. After Harvey, the insects have been particularly unruly, so officials wanted to treat over 600,000 acres with an EPA-approved insecticide called Dibrom.

Of course, spraying chemicals from above has many Houstonians worried about the safety of the procedure. When ABC 13 posted a map of the treated areas on Facebook, commenters had varying opinions. “Let’s spray poison on everyone and everything. No harm will come from it! Then it’ll be banned in 5 years for being harmful to humans. This is spraying our food too y’all know….grass that cows eat, corn and veggies….so awesome.” Lauren Cardenas said. While Allen Kutschenreuter countered, “The pesticide that is going to be used does not harm bees and most of the bugs that fly. But you will permit DEET to be sprayed directly on your skin! DEET kills most flying insects, as well as bees… But you are worried about aerial spraying. The same spray that has been used in the past aerial spraying in the Harris County area the last few years.”

Many were upset to see that their area of town wasn’t included on the map, and others were unhappy that the news didn’t spread quickly enough to warn everyone in the spray areas to be inside when it happened. Seeing an Air Force plane dropping chemicals from above at night can be very frightening if you don’t know what’s going on.

Officials are hoping that these sprays will result in a decreased amount of mosquitos and mosquito-related illnesses like West Nile.