Spraying

For the past two nights, between about 8 and 9:30 pm, the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District has been flying planes 300 feet overhead and spraying a pesticide, pyrethrin, which is made from chrysanthemums, to try to kill mosquitoes. So far there have been something like 7 or 8 West Nile Virus cases in Davis, although the number of mosquitoes actually seems pretty low to me. I can't even remember having been bitten at all this summer (at least not in Davis; we were bitten at Shasta Lake). Most of the cases have been younger adults (20s-30s), which seems to me to be unusual as it is typically either young children or elderly people who get sick when they are bitten. Most people who are bitten have no symptoms. They have found dead birds testing positive at several sites around Davis.

Some people have objected to the spraying (particularly organic farmers, who managed to get the planes to skip them somehow), but I've actually been surprised how muted the response was. In Davis they cancelled softball games and other outdoor activities, but in Woodland evening recreational softball was continuing to go on as usual. Hey, what's a little pesticide raining down on ya?