Neighbors Spraying Trees; Concerned

[Plymrocker]

I almost put this under Predators and Pests....Pests being the neighbors. Lol

We live in fairly close proximity to other neighbors. Two of them have now had some kind of spraying service come and spray something all up into their yard trees. The spraying is similar to a fire hose! And it leaves the air cloudy/foggy in that area for a bit. We don't know for sure what it is.

We are wicked concerned about this for many reasons:
1. We keep chickens.
2. We have organic gardens.
3. We are generally natural lifestyle kind of people who try to eat organic, avoid toxins and chemicals whenever possible. I am very concerned about the risk of this stuff to our OWN health especially. (Esp one of my boys who has a respiratory condition.)

The first time it was the neighbors across the street. These guys hopped out of the van and did it all quick, like it was some kind of hit! It was done before we could do a thing about it. We call the company and complained, and the owner said that address was not even on the day's schedule>>> Turns out the service guys were doing our neighbors a favor, as they were friends. In other words, the neighbors didn't even pay for the service. So...the owner was mad at his guys, glad we called, and assured me they would NOT be back.
** He also said that the spraying was for caterpillars. He said it has minimal toxins. (Uh-huh.)

The second neighbor was diagonal behind our property....closer to our chickens. Same kind of thing....spraying like a fire hose into the trees. I assume for caterpillars again. (Which, I do hate the caterpillars but....I don't want chemicals sprayed everywhere about it.

So I guess my question is:

Does anyone know how harmful this stuff may be to US and our CHICKENS?
We don't communicate with any of these neighbors, but even if we did express our concerns or our problem with their spraying, we're pretty sure neither of the would care or stop. Pretty much their property, their choice, our problem.

I'm just hoping anyone may know more about this kind of thing, or you all can tell me that we don't need to worry about this. Or maybe someone may even have some grand idea of what we can really do to protect ourselves. All hopeful thinking probably so...if all else fails, I'll take some commiserating. LOL

 

[coach723]

First thing I would do would be to call the company that did the spraying and find out what they actually used. I can understand your concerns. For caterpillars they often commonly use Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which is a biological rather than a chemical. If that is what they sprayed then risk would be minimal.
I believe that any mist or fog dissipates in 30 to 90 minutes to extremely low levels. It is very specific in what it works against, and there has been no toxicity shown to humans or birds. Here is a link discussing it: http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/extoxnet/24d-captan/bt-ext.html
If it was something else, you will need to research that particular chemical.
If they will not tell you what it is, or say it's "proprietary" you may have to push.
I've done it in the past saying I have multiple severe allergies and I need to know what it is so that I can take precautions if necessary.
Here is another link on the Bt : http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/pesticide/bt.html
Also, depending on your state laws, chemicals being sprayed on one property that drift onto another can be a violation of law. Depends on your laws, what it is, how far you want to take it.

 

[Plymrocker]

Thank you for those informative links and suggestions, @coach723 ! At this point, I only know that with the first neighborhood sprayers across the street, the active ingredient in what they were spraying they SAY is 'Bifenthrin', which from my research is just highly toxic to 'aquatic animals'. I have yet to find out what the back-diagonal neighbors were spraying.
You'd think that with neighbors in such close proximity, the spraying company would have some sort of regulations or requirements in place, to get signature permissions from close neighbors, before they would spray - as to not get sued, etc.