Dear Editor,
When did you last check on those healthy spider webs that grace the eaves of your house or garage, or establish themselves between tree branches or flower beds? These natural wonders of nature might just hold the key to protecting you from dengue, malaria or CHIKV.
The small, jumping day lizards and the heftier night-performing croaking lizards stand by just waiting to catch the mosquitos that missed the webs, or the active mouths of the night-flying bats, owls, or day-flying dragon flies that can consume thousands more. Meanwhile, outdoor natural habitats, including ponds, drains and canals, collect not only water, but a variety of insect-eating frogs, tiki-tiki fish, water birds (such as egrets), praying mantis (stick creatures), and a variety of nature's helpers whose favourite snacks include live mosquitos and their larvae.
Regretably, householders lose all the valuable services these amazing creatures have to offer free of charge by over-spraying expensive poisonous pesticides, filling their homes with toxic smoke by burning coils, clearing away cobwebs and killing off the spiders, and generally decimating the natural enemies of the mosquito.
Maybe a valuable lesson can be learned from the pain and suffering of the CHIKV: Love thy neighbours, particularly those who dine on mosquitos and their larvae..
Marguerite Gauron
President Emeritus
Portland Environment Protection Association
hmgauron@gmail.com
Save the natural enemies of the mosquito!
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When did you last check on those healthy spider webs that grace the eaves of your house or garage, or establish themselves between tree branches or flower beds? These natural wonders of nature might just hold the key to protecting you from dengue, malaria or CHIKV.
The small, jumping day lizards and the heftier night-performing croaking lizards stand by just waiting to catch the mosquitos that missed the webs, or the active mouths of the night-flying bats, owls, or day-flying dragon flies that can consume thousands more. Meanwhile, outdoor natural habitats, including ponds, drains and canals, collect not only water, but a variety of insect-eating frogs, tiki-tiki fish, water birds (such as egrets), praying mantis (stick creatures), and a variety of nature's helpers whose favourite snacks include live mosquitos and their larvae.
Regretably, householders lose all the valuable services these amazing creatures have to offer free of charge by over-spraying expensive poisonous pesticides, filling their homes with toxic smoke by burning coils, clearing away cobwebs and killing off the spiders, and generally decimating the natural enemies of the mosquito.
Maybe a valuable lesson can be learned from the pain and suffering of the CHIKV: Love thy neighbours, particularly those who dine on mosquitos and their larvae..
Marguerite Gauron
President Emeritus
Portland Environment Protection Association
hmgauron@gmail.com
Save the natural enemies of the mosquito!
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