Opt Out of Mosquito Spraying Before March 1st

Now is the time to exempt your property from Mosquito Spraying done by the state of Massachusetts for the current year. If you have bees, organic gardens or just don’t want your yard sprayed with pesticide, fill out the form below and file it with your town clerk via certified mail before March 1st.  Mailing this information by certified mail between January 1st and March 1st is the only way to exempt your property from Mosquito Spraying per MA Regulation 333 CMR 13.  Exclusions need to be filed out every year by the property owner to remain exempt.

There are two types of Mosquito Control you can exempt out of – Larviciding and Adulticiding. Larviciding is when insecticides are applied to shallow water to control mosquitoes in the larval stage and adulticiding is when Mosquito Control sprays pesticide into the air to target adult mosquitoes. This is done by aerial spraying or truck spraying. Adulticiding uses synthetic pyrethroids, either Anvil 10+10 Label & MSDS, Suspend SC Label & MSDS or Duet Label & MSDS .  All of these are toxic to honey bees as indicated on the product label.  While most of these applications are done in the evening, they can still be done during daylight hours when bees may be active and foraging as seen in this video below.  This is why it is important for beekeepers to exempt out of spraying.

Here is a video of a Mosquito Spray truck spraying the streets of Waltham, MA. 

The truck spray goes out of the truck about 300 feet and is designed to stay in the air. If your property is exempted out, the spray is turned off for your property and turned back on for your neighbors property. Your mosquito control board may or may not have a buffer zone where the spray is turned off before reaching your property. For this reason some beekeepers are also asking their neighbors to exempt out of spraying on their behalf.  All the information you need to exempt out is on this form below.  If you miss the March 1st deadline, you will not be able to exempt out of Mosquito Spraying until next year.

Property Exclusion from Pesticides

Date:

Please exclude the following property from mosquito control activities this year:

Resident name:

Address:

Town:

Telephone number:

Property owner (if different):

Address of owner:

Town:

Types of mosquito control applications to be excluded:

_____ Adulticiding

_____ Larviciding

This form must be submitted by certified letter dated between January 1 and March 1, of the year the exclusion is requested, to the Town Clerk in the town in which the property exists. The exclusion will run from April 1 of that year to March 31 of the following year.

Download the Opt Out Form as a PDF by clicking this link OptOutPesticides.

For more information of Mosquito Spraying in MA, please click here and select your district.  To find out the address of your town clerk, please click here.

“Mosquito On A Leaf” photo by Christian Meyn at freedigitalphotos.net.