2023-09-27 03:00:10
Céline Pernot-Burlet learned a lot on Monday September 25. Many details on the tiger mosquito, but also the rudiments of militant action. This 49-year-old illustrator was upset to discover, the day before, that a powerful insecticide was going to be sprayed near her home, in several streets of Maisons-Alfort (Val-de-Marne).
The operation was decided by the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Ile-de-France, in application of the protocol which is activated when cases of dengue, Zika or chikungunya are detected. This involves killing tiger mosquitoes, which transmit these diseases falling into the category of arboviruses. The insect has colonized 71 departments in mainland France since its appearance in Menton (Alpes-Maritimes) in 2004.
Out of the question for Ms. Pernot-Burlet to allow her hedgehogs and the little policemen who frolic in her garden to be endangered. “People are under-informed, she insisted on Monday. Pesticides are a short-term solution that will harm other species. » And to sound as she can the commotion: messages on Facebook, on LinkedIn, volley of phone calls. It will soon be relayed on X (formerly Twitter) by the local group Europe Ecologie-Les Verts et by environmentalist MEP Benoît Biteau.
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The result of this express mobilization is a modest assembly of around ten people, gathered on Monday shortly before midnight, a few minutes before the start of the operation. The protesters scan the surroundings, on the lookout for the van of the Regional Mosquito Control Agency (ARD), when a surprise guest appears: Georges Jakerian, the operations manager of this private company mandated by the ARS.
“I saw the announcement of the gathering in a tweet”, he explains. Some of his colleagues have encountered difficulties in their work – such as in Saintes (Charente-Maritime), at the beginning of September, where a comparable operation was prevented by a handful of opponents – and Georges Jakerian is taking the lead. There he is engaged in palaver, on a stretch of sidewalk barely lit by two street lights and a few bicycles.
The importance of informing the public
The first-line response once morest the tiger mosquito is “physical struggle, with the drying out of the shelters”he explains, and the insecticide is just a ” last resort “. What is he spraying? Aqua K-Othrin, a Bayer product whose active substance – deltamethrin – is a chemical compound from the pyrethroid family. In urbanized areas, the operations manager ensures that the dosage provided by the manufacturer is reduced. But the Marne is very close, someone protests. “Never apply within 50 meters of watercourses”he is told.
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