Organic Farm Treatments

Organic Farm Treatments

As mentioned in the ULV Fogger description above, when trap counts for adult mosquitoes meet our district’s action threshold of 20 adults/trap per night, adulticide treatments can be implemented to help control the adult mosquito population in that area.

Adulticides are dispersed using ultra-low volume (ULV) cold foggers that are either battery-operated handheld devices or gas-powered motorized systems mounted on a backpack or truck bed. These ULV foggers work by aerosolizing liquid adulticide into fine droplets that remain briefly suspended in the air, killing adult mosquitoes as they encounter these droplets.

The liquid adulticides we use for fogging organic farms is different from the liquid adulticides used in other parts of the county. When treating organic farms, we use an Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) listed product called Merus® 3.0. This product is EPA-registered formulation is listed as a botanical insecticide with natural pyrethrin active ingredients. During treatments, Merus® 3.0 is applied at extremely low rates (0.74 oz/acre) per label instructions. Though effective at killing target species that come into direct contact with the product, pyrethrin-based formulations have little residual time.

Merus® 3.0 is the only OMRI listed adulticide for large area mosquito control applications. This product also meets the USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP) standards for use over organic production. This adulticide is a low-odor formulation containing no petroleum distillates. At this time, it is the responsibility of the organic farm owner to notify CCMCD of their farmer’s location and WSDA-NOP certification status.

The ability to fog and overall success of a fogging operation is highly dependent on the environmental conditions (e.g., wind speeds, temperature, precipitation) at a given site. Scheduled fogging operations may be cancelled/postponed if conditions are not favorable. Please refer to our “Treatment Schedule” page for information on cancellations, or for further details on our planned/historical adulticidal fogging treatments.