Foray 48B

[monsoon]

Those people must not live uptown. ...

[uptownliving]

WBTV played the audio of one those people that called 911 to report the crop dusters. It was pretty funny to listen to it. They reported about 10 people called 911 yesterday which was pretty good considering the spraying covers some 600,000 people.

[tozmervo]

WFAE reported yesterday that the 911 system was "overwhelmed." I dearly hope that was an exaggeration if only 10 people called about the planes.

I wonder if the 911 operators have a button to automatically send calls to 311 for cases like that.

[dubone]

Do you usually have low flying crop dusters spraying aerosols on people's heads downtown?

[Spartan]

The article in the paper the other day said that they think the worm's overpopulation is due to the absence or a certain kind of hornet... perhaps we could take a different approach and repopulation the hornet population in the area.

[dubone]

I found a baby cankerworm in my hair today after walking.

This whole discussion reminds me of when I went for a long run through Eastover a couple years ago and was just horrified at how many of them were hanging on their silk. I must have flicked hundreds off my body. It was the stuff of nightmares.

It was the first I even knew of them.

[uptownliving]

The article in the paper the other day said that they think the worm's overpopulation is due to the absence or a certain kind of hornet... perhaps we could take a different approach and repopulation the hornet population in the area.

[uptownliving]

WFAE reported yesterday that the 911 system was "overwhelmed." I dearly hope that was an exaggeration if only 10 people called about the planes.

[dubone]

Perhaps they could have used the siren alert signals. That would have let people know the planes were coming.

Spartan, I agree with you that the wasps or hornets that are the predators should likely be protected for a while. The hornet/hornet's nest is a symbol of the city, after all.

[tozmervo]

Perhaps they could have used the siren alert signals. That would have let people know the planes were coming.

[Windsurfer]

I found a baby cankerworm in my hair today after walking.

This whole discussion reminds me of when I went for a long run through Eastover a couple years ago and was just horrified at how many of them were hanging on their silk. I must have flicked hundreds off my body. It was the stuff of nightmares.

It was the first I even knew of them.

[monsoon]

Perhaps they could have used the siren alert signals. That would have let people know the planes were coming.

[Spartan]

Does Charlotte not have tornado sirens? Back in Spartanburg they will test them every month, and they will sound during tornado warnings, and perhaps during German air-raids.

Well tonight WBTV reported that 911 was overwhelmed as well.

[Raintree21]

The only sirens in Mecklenburg County are in the ~5 mile radius around the nuclear power plants. There are no sirens in or around the spray areas. The only exception to the lake sirens are if there happens to be an old relic of a siren at one of the volunteer fire stations that doesn't even work anymore.

[Commoner]

The only sirens in Mecklenburg County are in the ~5 mile radius around the nuclear power plants. There are no sirens in or around the spray areas. The only exception to the lake sirens are if there happens to be an old relic of a siren at one of the volunteer fire stations that doesn't even work anymore.

[voyager12]

Anectdotally, from my dogwalking routes I have had different experiences in various neighborhoods. Here in Dilworth I did not run into many after spraying but Sedgefield was as bad as ever and not much better in Freedom Park and Cotswold. Perhaps it takes a bit to work but I am sick of picking them off myself and the dogs.

[Raintree21]

Perhaps the Sedgefield area was on day two and it may take an extra day for them to die off.

[dubone]

311 had a message playing telling people, so I bet that took care of a lot of calls. I have now met two people who called because they hadn't heard. One looked up the police non-emergency number (although I am not clear on why she felt it was enough of an emergency to call, but not to call 911). The other called 311.

I asked them if they liked my idea of using air raid sirens to warn people they were coming and they liked the idea. I think the comedic element to the suggestion must be more evident in verbal communication than written communication.

[Guest]

So I just got back from my evening walk and I must say whatever they sprayed did a great job of doing nothing. I went on the same route as yesterday, sharon rd. to queens rd east, and there was more today than yesterday, in fact I can honestly say there were more today than there were the day before they sprayed. I work in the University Area and it seemed like they spent the entire time flying over our treeless parking lot.

[Raintree21]

Well the city arborist disagrees with those of you that says it didn't do anything. He is saying that he has seen a huge difference so far and that we will see a huge difference in the amount of foliage as spring progresses as compared to years past.

[dubone]

They did say that it takes a while for them to die from it. If they ingested the pesticide then they're currently going hungry now, but not dead. The fact that they all came out around now is the reason they just sprayed.

I did have a curious question come to mind. In Inconvenient Truth, Gore talked about how certain bugs were now hatching before their predators, and that cycles were getting disrupted like that all over because of the changing climate. Is it possible that that is a contributor to this? It is otherwise a mystery as to why the predators aren't keeping the population of those caterpillars at bay.

[Raintree21]

Maybe they don't taste good.

Actually, the arborist has said that he has noticed much more bird droppings than usual which he interpreted as the birds eating the dead worms. Maybe for whatever reason the birds aren't attracted to the live caterpillars.

[I CARE]

Well, I left town for the spraying. Lately I have seen reports that suggest the spraying was a waste of money, no real significant difference, questions arising. Has anyone else found or seen reports of a marked increase in dead birds?

[Raintree21]

Everything I have heard and seen was that it killed much of the population of cankerworms, including the city arborist saying that the tree canopy is much fuller this year than usual- something that will help more trees live in the periods of drought lately.

[tozmervo]

Several coworkers that live in Plaza-Midwood say the difference between this year and last year is incredible. Not having been here last year, I don't have a basis for comparison, but they haven't been that bad at all in Sedgefield. Just a few here and there.