What are “adulticides”?
A. Adulticides, also regulated by the EPA, are products used to kill adult mosquitoes. Adulticides can be applied from hand-held sprayers, truck-mounted sprayers or using airplanes and helicopters. Adulticides, when used appropriately, can have an immediate impact in reducing the number of adult mosquitoes in an area, with the goal of reducing the number of mosquitoes that can bite people and possibly transmit arboviruses. Using Adulticides Spraying mosquitoes may help reduce the risk of being bitten, but it presents a number of concerns. The first is that if we aim to decrease the risk of acquiring WNV or EEE, we need to target only the mosquito species that can spread these arboviruses. We could try to kill all mosquitoes, but that would be wasteful and expensive. Using chemical insecticides can also carry environmental and human health risks. Spraying to kill the adults usually requires specialized ultra low-volume spray equipment (and special training), and is difficult or impossib
