Miami Blue & Mosquito control

[Stanley A. Gorodenski]

Ron Gatrelle wrote:

>I received in the mail today an important publication on the Miami Blue (
>Cyclargus thomasi bethunebakeri) and the status of mosquito control in the
>Florida Keys.  This extensive article comprises all of Volume 5 of the
>*Technical Bulletin of the Florida Mosquito Control Association*.   This is
>a non-profit scientific educational organization.   The paper is by Hribar,
>Lawrence J. and Edsel M. Fussell of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control
>District.
>
>This 41 page paper is well done and heavily referenced (346).   Contact
>information is:
>
>Florida Mosquito Control Association, Inc.
>P.O. Box 60837
>Fort Meyers, Fl.
>          33906
>
>The paper is titled:
>
>Mosquito Control, Miami Blues, and Mass Media in Monroe County, Florida.
>
>What a pragmatic and factual eye opener.  This fine bit of science begins
>with a note that the paper was originally sent to the J. Lep. Soc. for
>publication as a rebuttal  "...to assertions made in a paper published in
>the Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society in 2001 (Salvato 2001).  That
>paper claimed that mosquito control operations in the Florida Keys were
>negatively impacting butterflies in the Big Pine Key area.  Unfortunately,
>that rebuttal was rejected by the Journal."... etc.
>  
>

W e e e l l l ... As long as any papers I may submit are accepted, 
including rebuttals to rebuttals of rebuttals to rebuttals, it really 
doesn't matter to me :-) :-) :-) :-)
(just joking)

>It is about time that the leps community was notified of this censorship by
>the Lep. Soc.  This, is my view, tells me the Lep. Soc. editors at that
>time were certainly not without agendas and biases which they allowed to
>affect their work _for_ OUR Society.   
>

Seriously this time,  I do not know what agenda this would be. Of course 
that doesn't mean there isn't one but I tend to doubt such claims. There 
may have been legitimate reasons for rejecting it that we are not aware of.

>As I stated, this is a very fine
>piece of science done by professional entomologists.   I know the senior
>author somewhat from over a fairly long time of periodic communications ON
>Leps.  He recently had a paper published on various moth locality records
>in the Keys.  This was in *Florida Scientist* by the Florida Academy of
>Sciences, 2005.  He is thus a LEPIDOPTERIST as well as a degreed
>entomologist, and like many of us, a long time research associate with the
>FSCA (Florida State Collection of Arthropods).
>
>The only real reason this paper would have been rejected by the Lep. Soc.
>ed. is that it tells the facts and casts very reasonable doubt upon the
>long held witch hunt and scape goat of mosquito control as a (or even The)
>factor for the demise of leps in the Keys.   As a rebuttal, even if it was
>totally stupid, the Lep. Soc. had a duty to allow that rebuttal to be
>published  --  simply because it was a professional and official rebuttal
>against an ATTACK on them!!!   Censorship is the worst sin science can
>commit.   We are all intelligent enough to hear both sides and make up our
>own minds.  I feel robbed and deceived by the Lep. Soc. for keeping this
>information from my attention.  Had the author not sent me this copy I
>would never had know the "rest of the story".   And none of us would be the
>wiser to the blackballing of this data.  And the envio agendists could go
>on feeding us their biased or skewed "data" with us (the public) being none
>the wiser.
>  
>

I do not consider myself an envio agendist by any stretch of the word, 
but I do not understand the need for the extensive spraying done in 
Florida. Mosquitoes are everywhere. I have been in parts of the country 
loaded with mosquitoes. Once in Montana in setting up a sheet and black 
light I had to keep vigorously moving to keep them from getting a good 
foot hold to suck me dry. Once in Canada at noon I opened the window of 
my van by the roadside while stopped to eat a sandwich.The mosquitoes 
were piling in in droves through the open window. Once in Idaho I had to 
vigorously keep moving while taking a shower to keep mosquitoes in 
droves from attacking me. I am sure everyone has similar experiences. 
Everyone else has to live with them. Why should Florida uniquely feel 
the need for such extensive spraying? There is only one reason that I 
can see - corporate big money and greed. In my opinion if people want to 
live in Florida than they need to learn to put up with mosquitoes 
instead of spraying the daylights out of everything, irregardless of 
whether or not it has an impact on butterflies.

I will look at the paper if I can conveniently obtain a copy, but at 
this point in time my one experience with Florida about 4 years ago is 
contradictory to any claim of no affect on butterfly populations. I had 
attended a conference in April held at Disneyland near Orlando. We 
stayed in a Disney resort in Disneyland. During my three day stay the 
thing that really impressed me was the fact that I did not see a single 
insect - fly, mosquito, beatle, etc. - anywhere on the resort grounds (a 
quite extensive area acreage wise) during my stay. Maybe this is normal 
for Florida in April but I cannot help but feel it is because the 
Disneyland grounds were very heavily sprayed. Prior to the conference I 
rented a vehicle and got away for some collecting. I was able to find 
_some_ butterflies some miles from Disneyland, but no butterflies or any 
other insects on Disneyland itself.
Stan

>  
>


 
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