Hi Gang,
I am assuming that those of you who have signed up to get my Garden Gang Alerts are wildlife gardeners, that you garden with native plants that serve as nectar plants and host plants for our butterflies and moths, that your yard hosts many birds that feed on those caterpillars, that you welcome all beneficial pollinators, not just butterflies and moths, including bees wasps, flies, beetles, and hummingbirds. If so, your gardens concentrate a super abundance of beneficial pollinators and you are obligated to notify any agencies or private companies that do spray for pest insects like mosquitoes and ticks in your neighborhood.
I am quite flabbergasted by folks who claim that spraying does not occur in their neighborhood. Do they know that with certainty? My neighborhood alone, during this drought summer (except for these crazy rain events), has already been sprayed three times (as of July 3, 2024) by the Cape May County Department of Mosquito Control. If I was not on the Cape May County Department of Mosquito Control’s “Notification List,” I would never know they’d sprayed. They do it at night (between 7:00 p.m. and Midnight or between 3:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.), by truck, as they drive by.
So, please, for the well being of pollinators you’ve drawn in and concentrated (or if you keep bees, or if you garden organically), if you live here in Cape May County, New Jersey, where spraying for mosquitoes occurs regularly (in response to residents calling in and complaining), you can call and tell the Cape May County Department of Mosquito Control that you do not want your property sprayed.
Call the Cape May County Department of Mosquito Control
609-465-9038
Monday – Friday
( 7:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.)
Ask to be put on their “Notification List” / “No Spray List”
Be ready to provide: (1) your name, (2) snail mail address (street address), and (3) e-mail address (so they can notify you when spraying needs to be done in your town).
If you have called previously to be put on the “Notification List” (“No Spray List”), you will remain on this list indefinitely, unless you choose to be removed from the list by calling the Cape May County Department of Mosquito Control.
If you live in another county in New Jersey, where mosquito spraying also occurs, you can call your county mosquito department too and make this same request.
Mosquito Education
Regarding mosquito issues in your neighborhood, education is key. Prevention is the first step. Since mosquitoes need to breed in stagnant water, the most effective form of mosquito control is to remove all open containers to stop mosquito larvae from surviving in them. The non-native Asian Tiger Mosquito (above) breeds readily in man-made sites: saucers under plants, tires laying around, open buckets, etc. It is the main nuisance mosquito around homes and can be avoided. Kyle Rossner, an entomologist formerly with the Cape May County Department of Mosquito Control, created this MOSQUITO HABITAT CHECKLIST (click HERE) to help property owners resolve mosquito breeding sites they themselves may have created. Print this checklist and share it with any neighbors who call the Department of Mosquito Control and complain about mosquitoes or have signed on for treatments by a private company. There is a good chance they have caused the surge of mosquitoes themselves.
Be sure to also read my June 9, 2023, post: Help! A Private Company is Spraying the Neighbor’s Yard for Mosquitoes !