Decades of testing and field use demonstrate that the larvicides used by the Districts are safe for people and for the environment. They have high selectivity and low toxicity to non-target organisms, are applied in low concentrations and have low persistence resulting in no potential significant post-application residues. They are generally recognized as the “least toxic” of the effective available materials (Figure 1). They are used in small quantities as a portion of highly regulated IPM programs and their application rates are sufficiently low to leave the physical parameters of the environment (i.e., temperature, salinity, turbidity and pH) unchanged.
All of the materials currently in routine use by the Districts can be considered “less toxic” or “least toxic” according to US EPA acute toxicity data (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Relative toxicities of pesticides used by mosquito and vector control programs based on rat LD50 data from product labels, in comparison with some common household chemicals. “Less toxic” or “least toxic” according to US EPA acute toxicity data (Fig. 1).
