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4-Orono Weekly Times, Wednesday, SePtemnber 26,1984 Mercerfamily active with Fire Department GM Garage Sale for United Way The Annual General Motors Garage Sale on behaîf of the 1984 United Way Campaign wiIl be beld on Saturday, September 29th at 'the south staff garage, Park Road South from 10:00 a.mn. tfo 4: 00 p. m. New and good used articles will be donated from over 10,000 hourly and salaried general mofors employees. Commentator for- the "Dunk Tank"' will be D, Smyf h, CHUM radio in Toronto. Food and refreshments wiIl be provided by the bigbrothers and big sisters organizations of Oshawa. Employees may leave their articles at any gate one hour prior to shift. For further information, contact Dave Kline - 644-5822. During the course of the Fire Chief if was apparent Mercer who stilliclis the evening iast Friday when- that the Mercer family had days of the steam puimper. Ross Mercer was, honoured aiways been active with fire This was followed Bruce for bis years of service with protection in the community." Mercer, Ross and Jack, the the Oono Fire Department as It ail started with Harry latter who stili is a member of Fred Win stili gro ws them big Fred Winn of tbe Kendal Fred bas been in tbe area came to the office on business of potato growing Monday witb two fine for a good number of years specimen of is potatoes, one and bis product finds its way weighing in at two pounds to a numnber of local dinner and the other at i1/4 pounds. tab.les. l'~iFa.«hgog 43§a" quiwà"i LOSING GROUND TO THE MOSQUITO One of the ligter moments of the last provincial legisiature was private member's bill 159 proposing adoption of the mosquito as an officiai Ontario insect emblem. This time of year it's- safe f0 Joke about -such tbings. But as the people of Winnipeg know from, their bitter spray war, we baven't yet reached a friendiy accord with the voracious creature. In fact, many scienists now say we are on the losîng side 'of the struggie worldwide. l' lo uta matter of more itching but a range of alarming developments includîng tbe rise of malaria and dengue fever, decling effectiveness, of drugs to treat these mosquito- borne diseases, mosquito resistance to insecticides and a growing incidence in North America lof equine encephalitis, a disease fatal to horses. We're not giving up, of course. Researches are press- ing ahead with aIl kinds of new insecticides and repellents. And around the worid, knowlerdge of the mios- quitoes' breeding habits, sensory systemns ,andl behaviour are steadily moun- ting, But the perfect repeleiln bas yet to appear from the past 25 years of research. At the samne time, the rapidly breeding insect is ouf distanc- ing insecticides as f'ast as we deveiop tbemn. Ini every large Mosquito population a few, whicb survive are niatur-allyý resistant to a particular chemical. Their genes are in- herited by offspring wvhich quickl y repopulate the area. .There are other disadvan- tages tfo reliance on chemnicals. in a pîoneering Anmericani assessment of the environmiental anid social costs of pesticides of al kinds, reported in 1980, scientists came up with some startling though, stili preliminary figures: $45.000 annual non-fatal and fatal humnani pesticide poisonings, $12,000,000 in livestock losses, $287,000,000 in reduc- ed niatural enemies and resistance, $135,000,000 in boneybee, poisonings and reduced pollination, $11,000,000 in fish and wildlife losses and $140,000,000 in miscelaneous losses, for a sfaggering total of $839,000,000 each year. This accounting is by no means complete either. No wonder people in Winnipeg fought back against tbe welI- publicized low-Ievei aerial spraying in th eir city two suimmers ago. Tbere may well be some magic chemical cure still outý tbere awaitîng d iscovery. But there are good reasons to in- tenisif'y the research in other directions. A small scale ex- periment with a natural mos- quite enemy, the dragonfly, lends weight to this ap- proach. Some years ago, the the local department. Pictured above Harry and Edna Mecer, Dorie and Ross Mercer. voters in Wells, Maine re- jected a municipal proposai to spend $6,000 on a helicopter and spray. Instead, nearly 200 reidents purchas- Freee Simpiy cone in and cut wi th one of our Pioneer/Partner chain saws and we'ii hetp you keep your chaîns sharp with a f ree Nordtec file guide. ed $2,400 worth of dragonfly nymphis which t hey placed in prime mosquito breeding waters. The nymphs can con- sumne more than 3,000 mnos- quito iarvae an hour. A followup survey indicafed the experimient was successful and prompfed a larger scale effort the next year as weli as a major scientific research programn. Resident s point ouf that the dragonflies were ef- fective ail summuer and argue that chemnicals offen kili more of such predator species than they do mnosquitoes. Yes you cani fighf Cit y Hall. Public support is also vital to ensure that chemnicals are used sparingiy and alter- Save u o$40.00! Pick outoe ou featured saws, and we'Il take UP to $40.00 off the iist price. OFFER VALID 5PPTEMBER 1 THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 1984. OR WHILE SUPPLIES LA ST ROLPH native, more benign controis are found. Until then if is unlikely an Insect Embiem Act exaifing the mosquito wili ever get beyond first reading in our legisiature. Earlier fhis summer, i reported on. the declîning black duck population and the iack of specific controis on fthe hunit in Ont ario. Since then, 1984 hunfing regula- tions have appeared which resfrict the take to 2 ducks per day in nortbern Ontario and 1 duck per day in southern Onfario, wit h hunters being aiiowed to have 4 in possession across the province. Win! While youre at it register to win a f ree trip for two t0 Sweden, No purchase necessary.* *For officiai miles see entry form at your local Ponee/Partner Dealer. m -RE- we made our name mi hardware MAIN STREET, ORONO Phone 983-5207 T "rhanks to ailt tiose who supported me ithe recent election C'AMPBELL Authorized by:C.B. Lynch, Official Agent for Darce Campbell ............