Spraying mosquitoes

I’m the author of Attracting Hummingbirds and Butterflies in Tropical Florida so I read with interest the July 15 article, Mosquito spraying scaled back to protect rare butterflies.

Now that research proves mosquito spraying is harmful to butterflies, what is so disturbing is that Miami-Dade County Mosquito Control has the authority to spray poison over our property whether we want them to or not. If mosquito spray kills butterflies, then what is it doing to wild birds, your pets, or to you?

If two people in Florida contract a mosquito-borne disease, they consider it an epidemic and begin spraying everything, and everyone. For the amount of money that costs, maybe they could just leave a can of mosquito repellent at everyone's doorstep and let them spray themselves, not the environment.

This story was originally published August 2, 2015 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Spraying mosquitoes."