Airplanes spraying for grasshoppers in Long Valley last week stirred up residents and jammed- phone lines for local and state officials.
Valley County Weed Superintendent Kevin Gaither was "inundated" with calls from spraying done last Thursday and over the weekend.
Gaither said he received more than 200 calls on Friday after spraying began and 112 over the weekend.
The area sprayed reached from about three miles south of McCall to north of Cascade and involved the property of 15 landowners, who ordered the spraying, said Mike Cooper, deputy administrator for the plant industry division of the Idaho State Department of Agriculture. A total of 8,006 acres were sprayed in 17 blocks.
"They should have done this correctly instead of sending everybody into a frenzy," Gaither said.
Susi Malago and Randi Albrechtsen, two residents living south of McCall, said they were affected by the spraying.
On Friday around 9 a.m. Malago said she saw an airplane flying about 70 feet off the ground spraying. The wind was light, and she closed all the windows at her home, but still smelled the chemical in her home through Friday night,, she said.
She experienced an "instant" headache and flu-like symptoms that deepened and left her "really feeling out of it." Malago visited her doctor and was feeling better Saturday.
Wind slows spraying
Spraying is typically done at an altitude of 80 feet but is stopped when conditions turn windy, Cooper said. Had conditions been ideal, the full treatment could have been accomplished in one day, he said.
Albrechtsen was irked to see an airplane flying over her property, spraying without her permission.
She owns about 20 acres and believes that happened because the part of her property sprayed may have appeared as a farm field to the pilot.
Albrechtsen has allergies and uses no chemicals to eradicate bugs and weeds at her home.
Cooper said no formal complaints requesting an investigation were filed as of Tuesday, but he had responded to inquiries ranging from what chemical was being used to complaints about an airplane flying over homes.
No public notification is required by law because spraying was done for the farmers and not to counter a public health risk or a widespread insect infestation, he said.
Treating a wider problem would have required an environmental study involving public comment.
Cooper said aircraft would have flown over homes while they were turning or headed to another block. Sprayers would have been shut off when the pilot was done with an area, he said.
The pilot was guided by pre-plotted GPS coordinates, and position and times when sprayers were turned on and off recorded in a computer onboard the aircraft.
"We don't like to do any project without that," Cooper said of computer documentation.
Federal Aviation Administration clearance was not needed in the project area.
A precedent to last weekend exists from 2001 when spraying using a chemical called Dimilin was used to battle a grasshopper infestation in Long Valley. Dimilin was also used last weekend.
The chemical must be applied to juvenile grasshoppers to be effective, killing them by preventing molting, which grasshoppers need to do to continue growing.
Research has found Dimilin is not hazardous to honey bees, according to product information from the manufacturer, Crompton Corp.
Farmers grew concerned around June 20 that grasshopper numbers were sufficient to threaten their crops-and livelihoods-and contacted the state agriculture department through the University of Idaho cooperative extension service in Cascade for assistance, Cooper said.
The extension acts as liaison between local farmers and the state government because there is no local ag department office in the valley, Extension Coordinator Barbara Brody said.
Grasshopper and Mormon cricket control is a decades-long cooperative venture with individual landowners and the state, and is paid with state and federal grants. The state picks up two thirds of the cost, and farmers pay one-third.
The state only deals with individuals or groups who ask for treatment on their own property, Cooper said.
