Letters | 12-8-15

Subscribe Now Choose a package that suits your preferences.
Start Free Account Get access to 7 premium stories every month for FREE!
Already a Subscriber? Current print subscriber? Activate your complimentary Digital account.

A less toxic way to kill mosquitoes

A less toxic way to kill mosquitoes

The dengue outbreak concerns all of us, not just folks on the front line on Hawaii Island. I want to share one mosquito control approach that has worked well for me, for many years.

Available online and at some stores is a product called Mosquito Dunks. One fills a container with a couple of gallons of water, puts in a dunk once a month. In a couple of weeks — virtually no more mosquitoes. I have no connection to the manufacturer, by the way.

The dunks put a bacillus called Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) into the water. When mosquitoes deposit larvae, none hatch. Bt is a naturally occurring insecticide, the same organism now built into genetically modified papayas. I avoid those papayas, truth be told, but I sure appreciate Bt as an effective insecticide, and as an alternative to spraying with far more toxic chemicals.

Jan Becket

Honolulu

Administration is out of touch with reality

The latest debacle in California should not comfort Americans who worry about what could happen with a surge of “vetted” Islamic refugees. It is still too easy for those who want to do us harm to find their way to our shores.

The sad joke that Barack Obama and his out-of-touch administration keep trying to push down our throats is the claim of “work place violence” or in the latest case, the attack “could have been because they were upset about the holiday party” atmosphere.

Think on this: As Americans when we are unhappy or disapprove of something we have many options. We can disapprove vocally, protest, write letters, ignore, avoid or boycott. We do not grab our guns and start killing people. We are facing a culture we have little to no knowledge on how to react to under stressful conditions.

While I am not against immigration as a rule, those who choose to sit back and shake their heads and “trust our current system” are a tad naive.

Frank Dickinson

Kailua-Kona