Noticed my backyard birds stopped coming after the city sprayed for mosquitos last summer

I've been feeding birds for about 5 years. Had around 40 regulars - finches, cardinals, sparrows. Then the county did a mosquito fogging run through my neighborhood in July. Within a week, my feeders were empty. No birds for almost 2 months. Went to a friend's house 3 miles away who didn't get sprayed and his yard was still full. Has anyone else seen a pattern like this? I'm wondering what else is in that spray they don't tell you about.

3 comments

3 Comments

pat_moore25d ago

oh man, you are totally onto something with this. I had the exact same thing happen last summer after the city sprayed for mosquitos near my place, my bird feeders went dead silent for weeks. It was like a ghost town out there, and I watched my neighbor's yard two blocks away stay totally normal since they didn't get the fog.

samk7725d ago

Respectfully, @nguyen.angela, I see it a little different. There's been studies showing most mosquito sprays break down pretty fast in sunlight and don't leave much residue after a day or two. Your mileage may vary, but in my experience, the silence could be from birds just avoiding the area during the actual spraying rather than any long term damage.

nguyen.angela25d ago

oh man that is wild how specific the spray zone was. i live near a creek and after the county did their annual mosquito dunking around here, my hummingbirds disappeared for almost a month. there was this one feeder right by the creek that normally had a dozen of them fighting over it, and it just sat there full of sugar water. i even saw a few dead bees on the ground near the spray area, so i think it really messes with the whole insect population that birds depend on. it makes me wonder if this is happening more than we realize but nobody is really connecting the dots because the spraying happens on different schedules everywhere.