Category Archives: Miami

County Spraying Naled — At the Wrong Time of Day?

Miami-Dade is aerial spraying a pesticide banned in the EU to control potentially Zika-infested mosquitoes:

Vasquez, of the county’s mosquito control unit, also said that while initial spraying had reduced mosquitoes, the number had started to rise again with recent heavy rain. The county plans to conduct eight aerial treatments altogether, four with an insecticide called Naled and four with BTI, an organic larvicide to attack eggs. The area has been divided into sectors, with nine teams doing door-to-door inspections in search of breeding mosquitoes, he said.

Zika Virus: Count rises in Miami with another case.

There are two problems here. First, Naled was banned by the European Union in 2012 because the risk to humans and to the environment was deemed unacceptable.

The US Air Force also recently sprayed Naled, aka Dibron, in an uspecified wide area around the Homestead Air Force Base (including residential areas) “to improve working conditions and lower the risk of vector-borne illnesses to individuals who work and live at Homestead Air Reserve Base and the surrounding Miami-Dade County.”

There’s also a question of timing. I assume that in general it’s better to do aerial spraying when fewer people are on the street so as not to get the spray on people. (Seems logical, but if any readers are expert in pesticides, please correct me if I’m wrong about that.) But when the Air Force sprayed, it did it in the evening when the mosquitoes are most likely to be flying: “Since it is an aerial spray, most mosquitoes have to be in the air to contact the material, that is why we do it so close to evening when mosquito populations are coming out of their hiding spaces” said Lt. Col. Karl Haagsma, entomologist for 910th Airlift Wing.

In contrast, the Miami-Dade spraying started early in the morning and kept going through rush hour:

On Wednesday, a low-flying plane misted the area with a nontoxic larvicide intended to kill mosquito eggs, Casey said. But a flight that was scheduled to fly at 6:30 a.m. was still flying overhead at 10 a.m., angering business owners already on edge about scaring away customers.

I’m no biologist, but isn’t this the worst of both worlds: spraying when all the humans are up and about, but not the mosquitoes?

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No Breeding on Campus

Anopheles_albimanus_mosquitoThe U sent out Advisory No. 2: Update on Zika Virus and UM Preparedness Actions.  Key bits:

  • … The University has not identified any locations on campus where mosquitos appear to be breeding or congregating, and daily surveillance is being conducted. While FDOH and CDC have not recommended aerial or wide-area spraying for any UM campus, targeted spraying is being done. …
  • Miami-Dade County, at the request of UM, conducted a mosquito survey of the Coral Gables campus this past weekend; they found no active breeding locations and did not recommend spraying. Mosquito surveys for the medical and marine campuses were requested last week and are expected to be completed by the end of the week.

The medical school campus is a mile, if that, from Wynwood, but the Coral Gables campus where I am is about 7.5 miles from the near edge of Wynwood.  U.M. says we’re 10 miles away, but I think that is the driving distance; I suppose mosquitos may take the freeway when they hitch a ride. On my map, ten miles North-East from the law school puts you beyond Little Haiti.

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Zika Ground Zero is About 7.5 Miles NE of Here

Wynwood to Coral Gables as the crow, er Aedes aegypti mosquito, flies.

(Corrected headline: NE not NW. Not that the mosquitoes care.)

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Got Me

Toll-a-paloozaDolphin Expressway to be Converted to 15 Consecutive Miles of Toll Booths

The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX) announced on Monday that it plans to greatly expand the number of toll plazas along State Road 836. The plan, which will take thirteen years and cost upwards of $1.4 billion dollars, will see 60 new toll installations along the 15-mile expressway. The design was unveiled to the County Commission and Metropolitan Planning Organization to resounding applause by an unnamed representative of the MDX, a Borg-like collective comprised of 13 assimilated, unautonomous board members.

This came up on my RSS feed, and I was really believing it, especially given the photo of the Sunpass scanners, until about the end.

Actually, like much great dark humor, it expresses a deeper truth.

Bonus dark: Mayor Gimenez to Open Manatee Hunting Season in Miami

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Darkness at Noon

Light is one of Miami’s signature characteristics. And lately we haven’t gotten much.

In Summer we enjoy a Caribbean sun; it can feel like a slap on the head when you step out of the shade. Then there is the Monsoon season, where it rains every afternoon. But in Winter, we are in a temperate Paradise: sunny, warm, bright.

But not this December, at least not so far. We have had unseasonable rain. Heavy rain alternating with blindingly heavy rain, and puddles so big they amount to small ponds. Thunderstorms. Daily. For a week. And the forecast is for it to continue. And when it’s not raining it is cloudy and dark. On Saturday I overslept badly–really badly–because the light I count on to wake me up on weekends never appeared.

I do grasp that many people reading this will be living in places where the sun rises late and sets early this time of year, and experience has taught me that such people are not in the main terribly sympathetic with complaints about our winter weather. But consider that this season is supposed to be our reward for the brutality of an August that usually runs from mid-May to some time in November, and perhaps you will see why I think Nature is not playing fair this year.

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Coral Gables Cops Offer Their Lobby as Transactional “Safe Space”

Coral Gables Central reports that the Coral Gables Police are offering their main lobby as a “safe haven” for people to meet to consummate internet-negotiated transactions. Think Craigslist deals.

The goal is to reduce the likelihood of a criminal act being committed. The Coral Gables Police Department is located at 2801 Salzedo St., Coral Gables, 33134

The department will not be involved in setting the meetings, but the lobby can be used for this transaction any day of the week between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

This is a good thing, and the Police should be congratulated for doing it. But note that the cops say they only welcome legal transactions, so unsurprisingly this may not be the place for drug deals, escorting meets, and, they warn, nothing lasting more than 15 minutes. And I’m betting it’s not just watched by a bored desk Sargent, but all taped on camera.

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