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Mosquito Abatement


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I am interested in starting up a new category.

Recently while caching in Northern California, I noticed a huge umber of mosquito larva in tree holes. I thought that is was possible to connect geocaching and boyscouting and mosquito abatement. So I contacted my local Mosquito abatment department and asked them what the deal was with irradicating mosquitoes from these tree holes. They said they have a special polymer which when it gets wet it expands. Put in a tree hole, the mosquitoes no longer have a place to lay their eggs. The polymer dries out every summer and is good for four years. My local Mosquito abatement department is seriously considering my idea. They like the fact that cachers would be able to log their tree treatments and they would have access to the information, as would other cachers wishing to treat an area, reducing confusion and double treatment. Tree hole mosquitos are directly involved in Heartworm, which is usually fatal in dogs - the treatment is horrendous if not caught early. And it is possible these guys also transmit West Nile Virus. The treatment is easy, get checked out with regard to how to treat the trees and pick up the polymer, then log which trees you have treated using your gps unit, and then log your work on line....what do you think? I did some polling and found a number of people are interested in the project and would be willing to carry the polymer and treat the trees affected. Right now the mosquito abatement supervisor is putting my idea to his board. I just need to tae care of the details like having a waypoint web page in order to log the information...Thank you for responding

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I like the idea... I don't know how well it would work in practice... I don't think most waymarkers/geocachers would like to "visit" these spots, and with a 4 year down period before you can actually DO something with the waymark... I wonder if people would just kind of forget it was even there.

 

I do think some kind of website with this type of info would be a great idea for those that care... maybe it would work in Waymarking and just be for those who actually want to wait the 4 years (Mark your calenders boys and girls!!!!). It's like leap year or something... wouldn't that be cool to go and fill these things in on leap year then every leap year you know that you need to do it... after all it is the only day that you can't do it every other year.

 

Interesting idea.

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Well I think your vision is a bit limited...this concept is more than just in one area, it may not be just where one cache is. Cachers interested in the area they are going to cache in can take the polymer with them, if they see a tree hole with water or mosquito larva in it, on the way or in the area then they can treat it. Since there are so many caches in the open spaces in the area I live in, the possibilities are endless. The program would expand as cachers see trees needing to be filled. Along the way to a cache, there may be several trees which need to be treated, not just one. I found a good dozen trees with tree hole mosquito larva in them within a few feet of the path on the way to one cache. Depending on the way the program would work, I might need to go back to the area to retreat, or other cachers could learn about the trees needing treatment by logging on and learning which areas needed some polymer. So this is not just like one square foot area needing one tree treated once every four years.

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I understand that. I think the point I try to get more is that you will miss out on anyone who is doing Waymarking for just visiting unique places... not because these trees aren't unique but because if a tree area may only need to be filled once every four years... I just don't know if people will want to visit such places just for the heck of it... Am I missing the point of Waymarking a little maybe?

 

Like I said what you suggest is a great idea, I like it... but it is very akin to the Trash idea... and maybe Waymarking is an easy place to database this <shrug> I'm just trying to bring up a point on it...

 

On the other side, in 4 years once these trees start needing more polymer it starts becoming more interesting because you will have tree areas needing more all over the place as well as the new ones that will be added along the way and it will become much more interesting of a category for the casual person. I think my point is more will anyone remember in 4 years... because I think there will be more people willing to go to a waymarked location than people willing to go create a waymark... (am I wrong on this assumption too?)

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You brought up some good considerations. Thank you very much

I polled some people in my general area and asked if they were interested in doing this. Just as part of a geocaching. There was a pretty good return of interested people, especially when finding out that there was no poisons involved. The reason it would be under Waymarking is purely because no cache is involved in the information being logged or looked at. It was a request of geocaching.com. Since geocaching is specifically about caching and not in making pregnant mosquitoes homeless.

So, the Waymarking would be just for logging and interest would be just for those interested in keeping the skeeter population low. Maymarking along a cache route to treat trees may just be "taking the scenic route" once a cache is found and logged. It gives the cacher something to do on the way back to the car or if personal interest is high, on the way to the cache and even in the surrounding areas. It would depend on the area completely. The caches I am thinking of a "BUN SERIES" all in open space district lands. There are about 10 or so caches, and they are not on the beaten path. There are at least 6 different ways to get to these caches. Up fire roads, up trails, and since they are all in open space, the possibilites are endless. I sometimes take deer trails back from a cache. I am into nature and like to chcek out my surroundings a bit more. Which opens up more possibilites. So I think it would all depend on the area, the interest of the individual cacher, tree population, time of treatment etc. I dont think all the trees will be treated at the same time or even in the same year, which is why I needed a place for logging the information. Waymarking would provide that very option. Plus it might increase the positive image of geocaching among the general public. I have talked to a den mother of a boy scout troop, wanting to know if they might be interested in getting involved as well. If I saw a local park with a number of tree holes with water in them, I could arrange a meet, get cachers and scouts together and make a great day of it. The possibilities, as I see it right now are huge. I dont think your assumption is wrong, I just think that treating the tree holes would not be a "four years is up lets treat the trees" situation. Cachers looking for a place to hide in open space, might just pick up the treatment before going, and along the way notice if any trees need treatment, log the information and if a cacher coming is interested in mosquito treating, they could check the log ahead of time. There may be more that one tree needing treatment, I would like to have that possibility open, to log that a tree has been treated and have a heads up for those who are caching to keep an eye out for trees needing treatment. Especially in the woods or in open space, there are numerous ways to get to a cache...I appreciate your interest and keep coming with the questions and comments the more I get ironed out now- the better. Thank you

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It seems that you already talked to geocaching.com so maybe this is a moot point... but to me it almost seems like that maybe this would be a nice feature for geocaching.com to have in their logging system or something. You say it is in Waymarking because there is no geocache involved but then you go on to say that while geocachers are out getting their cache they could use the polymer on trees along the way. That sounds like there is a cache involved to me.

 

I think it'd be nice that all this info would be in one place so say I was going to Geocache A and I noticed along the way that there was a tree in need of the polymer so I do it and go back to the geocache page and enter it in my log along with the coords (maybe they could have a small input box below not unlike their little travelbug thing that they currently have). Next week I go to Geocache B and in preparing I see there is a tree in the polymer log that is about due, so I make sure to bring the polymer and note the coords so I can do it on the way.

 

It would just be nice to have all this info neatly in a single place so that I wouldn't have to get all my info for the geocache and then try to figure out what waymarks are along the way to the cache at Waymarking.com... (especially since they haven't really coordinated waymarks with the geocaching.com maps but can you imagine if this tree thing became a hit and an area was just swamped with marked trees so much so that you couldn't find caches so people just turn off the Waymarking button and take away the point of the deal). In my mind it becomes a hassle instead of an all in one spot for info about the cache area.

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You are right on the mark with your comments, and these are "bugs" that will have to be worked out so that it does not become so complicated that people wont do it. My idea was that cachers were ideal people to treat trees for a number of reasons, *they are in the area where these tree are located, *they are looking in places most people would not be looking, *they can log the tree treatments -when, where etc...I would love to know which would be the best way possible to log this information. Maybe a link could be provided by GC.com, who knows

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