Anti Mosquito Device For Floor Trap
Desiderato Merriwether
This guide for consumers explains key facts about pesticidal devices (called devices in this document) and how they differ from registered pesticide products. Device producers and those seeking more information may also wish to consult the Pesticide Registration Manual - Chapter 13 - Devices.
Under FIFRA, EPA regulates both pesticides and devices. How a particular product is regulated depends on whether it is a pesticide or a device; the product's specific claims, intended use, design, and function; and whether the product is used or sold/distributed with a pesticide or a precursor substance.
Examples: Insecticides, fungicides, rodenticides, antimicrobials (e.g., disinfectants), herbicides, and many pest repellants and attractants (e.g., substances that attract pests to lessen their impact, such as by attracting pests to a trap).
Key Feature: an instrument or contrivance, generally working by physical means (e.g., electricity, light, or other mechanical or physical means) and not containing a substance or mixture of substances, that is intended to trap, destroy, repel, or mitigate a pest.
Examples: UV lights, water and air filters not treated with a pesticidal substance, ultrasonic devices, replacement parts (e.g., bulbs) for devices that are themselves intended for pesticidal purposes.
Combination products: Where a product that would otherwise be a device also incorporates a pesticidal substance, it may be considered a pesticide product. For example, a filter that physically traps microbial pests (generally a device) would be an antimicrobial pesticide product if it also incorporated a pesticidal substance that kills those pests to improve the efficacy of the entire system.
Firearms: FIFRA excludes firearms from the device definition. For example, a rifle used to control feral hogs is not a device. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) (not EPA) regulates firearms.
Pesticide Application Equipment: Equipment used to apply a pesticide is often sold separately from or packaged with a pesticide. Such equipment serves as a delivery mechanism for the pesticide. Application equipment is not a device. Application equipment that is sold or distributed with the pesticide is generally registered along with the pesticide as part of the pesticide product, per 40 C.F.R. 152.3. For example, a sprayer for a lawn herbicide that is sold with a registered herbicide (e.g., a full-size container, a sample) must be included in the herbicide registration. Pesticide application equipment that is sold and distributed separately from the pesticide itself is neither a device nor part of a pesticide product. For example, if the same sprayer for a lawn herbicide were sold and distributed separately from the registered herbicide, it would not be regulated by EPA.
Devices are regulated by EPA. A compliant EPA-regulated device will include an EPA Establishment Number on the label (associated with the location where the device is produced). It will not include an EPA Registration Number, which would only be found on registered pesticide products. Registered pesticide products will include an EPA Establishment Number and an EPA Registration Number. Pesticide products undergo a thorough review of data supporting the registration, including product performance (efficacy) studies.
As noted above, FIFRA does not require devices to undergo premarket review and registration before being sold and distributed, as it does for pesticides. Generally, device manufacturers, sellers, and distributors do not submit their claims or efficacy and safety data to EPA (for approval or otherwise) before selling or distributing a device.
However, EPA does regulate devices and may find that some devices are misbranded (FIFRA 2(q), 40 C.F.R. pt. 156) upon review at import or in the marketplace. Misbranding issues with device labels and labeling may include:
EPA recommends that consumers use devices consistent with any precautionary language and directions for use. In addition, EPA recommends that consumers should contact the manufacturer or seller of the device directly with any questions regarding the proper use of the product
Claim to kill, inactivate, or suppress growth of microorganisms such as fungi, bacteria or viruses. They may also be used to attract insects or kill plant pathogens (e.g., powdery mildew on strawberries).
Products that create ions from the air are generally regulated as devices, unless they contain or are sold with a pesticidal substance or have a pesticidal coating or film causing the pesticidal effect.
However, if the generator is sold or distributed (e.g. transported to another location for use) with a substance (e.g., salt) or the output solutions, the generator may be part of a pesticide product.
On September 14, 2022, EPA issued an exemption for residues of the antimicrobial pesticide ingredient hypochlorous acid from the requirement of a tolerance when used on or applied to food-contact surfaces in public eating places.
Note: Electrolyzed water is another name for hypochlorous acid. As EPA has assessed hypochlorous acid and determined the potential for adverse effects, EPA recommends that electrolyzed water generated by these devices not be ingested or applied to the human body.
Note: Water filters that limit claims to taste, odor, or sediment and do not claim to purify water or mitigate microorganisms are generally not considered pesticidal devices and thus are not regulated under FIFRA.
Electromagnetic and/or Electrical Devices: Products claiming to control pests via electromagnetic and/or electrical means (e.g., ultrasonic insect and rodent repellers, hand-held bug zappers, electric flea combs) are devices, provided that that the product is not sold with a pesticidal substance.
Mosquito species preferring to breed around the house, like the Asian Tiger Mosquito, have limited flight ranges of about 300 feet. Most species have flight ranges of 1-3 miles. Certain large pool breeders in the Midwest are often found up to 7 miles from known breeding spots. The undisputed champions, though, are the saltmarsh breeders - having been known to migrate up to 100 miles in exceptional circumstances, although 20 to 40 miles are much more common when hosts are scarce. When caught up in updrafts that direct them into winds high above the ground, mosquitoes can be carried great distances.
Female mosquitoes imbibe blood so that their eggs can mature prior to laying. It serves no nourishment function. Males do not take blood meals at all. In order to obtain energy, both male and female mosquitoes feed upon plant nectars - much in the same manner as honeybees.
Mosquitoes fill a variety of niches which nature provides. As such, placing a value on their existence is generally inappropriate. Although the fossil record is incomplete, they have been known from the Cretaceous Period (about 100 million years ago) in North America. Their adaptability has made them extraordinarily successful, with upwards of 2,700 species worldwide. Mosquitoes serve as food sources for a variety of organisms but are not crucial to any predator species.
Given that nature abhors a vacuum, other species will fill the niches vacated by the mosquitoes after an initial shuffling period of variable length. Be advised, though, that species replacing mosquitoes may be even worse - it's extremely difficult to predict. Mosquitoes' ability to adapt to changing environments would make them all but impossible to eradicate.
In general, mosquitoes that bite humans prefer to fly at heights of less than 25 ft. Asian Tiger Mosquitoes have been found breeding in tree holes over 40 feet above ground. In Singapore, they have been found in apartments 21 stories above ground. Mosquitoes have been found breeding up to 8,000 feet in the Himalayas and 2000 feet underground in mines in India.
Many studies have been conducted on this issue in the United States and abroad. To my knowledge, there has never been a successful transfer of the virus from an infected source to another host by bloodfeeding insects under experimental conditions. The experts have concluded that the insects are not capable of such transmission. Many biological reasons would lead one to this same conclusion, but the extensive experimental studies are the most powerful evidence for the conclusion.
At least 43 species of mosquitoes have been found infected with the West Nile virus in the United States. Not all of these, however, are capable of maintaining the virus in such a manner as to permit them to transmit it among organisms. Many of these infected mosquitoes feed only upon birds, thus contributing to a cycling of the virus among avian populations. Other species feed upon these infective birds and then will feed upon mammals, including humans. These are called "bridge vectors" because they serve as a conduit for the virus to travel from its reservoir in birds to its final host in humans or other mammals. In urban settings, Culex pipiens is usually the primary vector. In rural areas, particularly in the western part of the United States, Culex tarsalis is the primary transmitter. As control measures for each of these mosquitoes are considerably different, it's important to know which is known to be in your area. Contact your local mosquito abatement district or the Technical Advisor of the American Mosquito Control Association for information regarding the mosquitoes found in your area.
A determination of absolute numbers of mosquitoes for each state is extremely difficult, however, as mosquito populations tend to be focal, depending upon amount of breeding habitat, potential hosts and climatological factors - regardless of the number of species. Thus, relatively dry places like Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico may have intense mosquito activity in areas where water is present. Alaska has a relatively short season, but biting activity during that time is prodigious, indeed. Mosquitoes are particularly prolific in areas with rice farming, extensive salt marsh or dredge spoil.
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