Our Story

In 2008 we were successful in persuading our city council (Mansfield, Tx) to amend their policy on ground spraying for mosquitoes such that nuisance spraying stopped.  In 2016 we were deeply saddened and appalled to learn that ground spraying in our city was reinstated.  It taught us a difficult lesson, namely, you don’t take an issue to city council and rest on your laurels thinking that change will be into perpetuity.

What we learned in researching ground spraying to manage mosquito populations is it’s the least effective yet most costly and toxic approach.  In fact, there is NO evidence that ground spraying prevents West Nile virus or any other vector born disease.  We also learned the relative risk of contracting the neuro-invasive form of West Nile Virus (WNV) is extremely small and pales in comparison to your chances of contracting influenza, yet, by way of ground spraying a large portion of the population is exposed to toxic insecticides.  This even as evidence is growing ever stronger that pesticide exposure is a key contributor to autoimmune, cancer, autism, Parkinson and other chronic illnesses.

In April 2018, Larry (co-founder of Citizens Concerned for a Healthier Texas) was diagnosed with uveal melanoma.  In September 2018 upon our return from one of his follow-up appointments at MD Anderson we learned via email from the Environmental Manager of the City, weather permitting, ground spraying was to begin in two days.  At this time no traps in the proposed spray zone had tested positive for WNV which qualifies the event as a spray for nuisance mosquitoes.  Given our health concerns coupled with the fact we grow grapes, figs, elderberry, vitex, asparagus, annual food crops, a variety of herbs, harvest rainwater, compost our food scraps and yard wastes and in hopes of salvaging the biologicals, we requested a buffer and were refused.  What happened next was our worst nightmare.  For the next 9 out of 15 consecutive days our neighborhood was ground sprayed with insecticide.  Like chemotherapy the insecticide is non-selective and kills all insects including bees, butterflies and natural mosquito predators.  In fact, the spraying events took place just as the monarch butterflies were migrating through our area and situations such as this are likely a major contributor to their decline.  Similar to antibiotic resistance in humans, mosquitoes develop resistance to the insecticides and because this approach also further reduces natural mosquito predator populations this approach ultimately sets us up for greater challenges in the long term.  Again with NO evidence ground spraying prevents West Nile virus or any other vector born disease.

After the overkill spraying event we became very curious and learned many things we believe you may find telling.  We will be sharing these in subsequent posts and hope you will sign up to be included in our email list so we can keep you apprised of current events that will afford you the opportunity to take action.

Because you are here it’s likely you share similar beliefs and we are hopeful you are willing to take action NOW and into the future.  We repeatedly hear “you are the only ones complaining about the spraying” and “we have far more people calling wanting to be sprayed”.  We need YOU to help affect positive change.  Let’s do this together!