To Spray or Not to Spray?

The spraying of insecticides on one's property conjures up images of Love Canal and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. We would say that this is a good thing. We must question the benefits against the possible risks and side affects that spraying might cause. One thing we have noticed is that if we did nothing, our trees would surely die. This is not acceptable to us so we are doing research into this on our own.

These pages are the result of research by laymen that want to know first hand what seems to be effective in battling these bugs. We are not trying to convince anyone to a particular way to go and whether or not you should be spraying your trees. We are sharing with you our experience in the midst of so much conflicting information that has been going around.

The "experts" who are available to us to ask our questions readily admit that they (and their peers) have never seen an event such as this in their entire lifetimes - that the die-off is unprecedented as far as what has been recorded in history. They are on a learning curve like the rest of us. They approach the problem with more basic information about the study of insects (entomology), life cycles of the insects and information about their habits during normal times. These are not normal times and the experts and public at large are learning more all the time.

The reason that we are choosing the option of spraying is to buy us the time we need for new information and possible alternatives to be discovered. There is also the possibilty that this drought will not be the long term drought predicted. The meteorologists who forecast the weather are making long term predictions but at the same time are unable to accurately predict from one winter to the next whether or not the next winter will be an El Niño winter, bringing higher than normal precipitations...

The most common recommendation from the local nurseries, county extension agency, City Parks and Recreation Dept., State Forestry Service and National Forest Service has been to spray carbaryl (Sevin). Many people have used carbaryl with no positive effect, continuing to lose all or most of their trees. Somewhere along the line, the word got out that carbaryl was the insecticide to use and its use has been perpetuated by word of mouth - and it is labeled for use against bark beetles.  
We started using the permethrin in the late summer months of 2002.  We have had very good, but not total, success.  The brand that we were using required re-application every 6 weeks to 2 months.  Not only was this getting to be very expensive, it was starting to wear me out.  Fortunately, we got wind of a new permethrin based product developed in Arizona that is formulated using cellulose.  Simplistically speaking, the cellulose encapsulates the active ingredient, permethrin, and makes it stick better to the cellulose fibers of the tree and also protects it from microbial and bacterial degradation as well as degradation from other environmental factors such as moisture and sunshine.

In October, 2003, we attended a talk at a local nursery. There were varying opinions about the safety and effectiveness of spraying and which spray to use. There are definitely those who have a strong opinion against the use of pesticides, saying that you are creating a "dead zone", killing all the insects on the property and possibly contaminating the rest of the life on that plot of land. Through the links that we provide as a starting point in our search for information on the synthetic pesticide, Permethrin, we think that you will find this to be a rather benign chemical that allegedly passes through mammals and birds but has a deadly impact on many different insects, not just the bark beetle. It is supposed to break down in the environment within a couple of months or so and needs to be re-applied throughout the summer, usually once in the spring in April midway through summer in late June or July and again in the middle of September "or so."

There is one site we have come across so far that says just the opposite. It brings up the spector of possible tumor growth due to Permethrin. We feel that there is enough information out there to contradict this site that we are willing to continue the search for the definitive answer. So far, everything else has been of a more positive nature. To what extent commercialism enters this, I can't say. I do know that it has EPA approval and is listed for pine and "turpentine" beetles.

This argument against spraying favors letting Nature take its course so as not to destroy the balance that Nature is intending to achieve. For us, living in a forested environment, it is not so easy to choose the insects over these magnificent trees that provide so much to the quality of our lives. That said, we are not willing to poison ourselves. That is why it is imperative to gather as much accurate information as we can to make the best possible decisions. We are coming into the spring and summer months. This means that the beetles are waking up, ready to start moving out of their winter habitat and to begin the reproductive cycle.