This has become a big mental health issue for me. My neighbors hire commercial pest control companies that use pressure washers and gas-powered backpacks to broadcast their chemicals as a cloud of aerosol droplets that drift in the air and fill the surrounding neighborhood.
For the fourth year, My bad neighbors are back at it for another year, and now the circle is complete. all four sides, all four neighbors now use one of these commercial companies. Never at the same time or day, so I never know when it is safe to have the window of my HOME open. My 90 year old mother can't use the Air Condition because of the blood thinners and she gets cold easily so her window is open most of the time in the summer. I do understand and empathize with my neighbors. They want to protect their pets and children, but there are topical bug repellants and other commonsense practices that don't involve spraying chemicals on other people without their consent. 57 years we have lived here and I am literally sickened by this selfishness, I have spoken with 3 of them and they arrogantly refuse to stop. I have spoken with the board of health in my town and the EPA of Massachusetts and they say can't, and will not do anything because the product these companies use is "Unregulated". These companies don't have to follow any guidelines or even have to be licensed to spray these chemicals. My neighbors and these companies keep repeating to me that what they are spraying is "All Natural". They have found that they can bypass all the commonsense facts that all their active ingredients are chemical compounds. All they have to do is use clever wording like "All-natural plant extracts and oils".
Ask yourself if is it morally correct to spray something, Natural or not, that enters someone's home and their lungs, while they are sleeping, without their consent.
Sure we have to check for ticks when we come in from the yard but the odds of getting sick on average are very low as one of the 7 million people living in Massachusetts and even lower for mosquito-borne diseases! For the most part, bugs are just an annoyance and no reason to pepper spray the entire neighborhood sever dozens of times a year between March 1st and November 30.
I try and convince myself to accept it as something that can't be changed, like trying to stop the rain or the noise of commercial airplanes flying over my head. But every time I hear and smell the bug sprayers my mind starts to run wild, one of the compounds they use is a deer repellant, I'm I not a Mammal with a nose? My brain goes completely off the deep end, knowing it is out of my control to do anything about it. Talking with them, writing letters, and making phone calls have not changed anything. My agoraphobia has been over the top, knowing that I can't even go for a car ride or use my bicycle because this spray is everywhere. I'm not safe anywhere I go, I'm not even safe in my own bed. What's more, it doesn't even work. I was over at my neighbor Joe's house asking him to stop, the chemicals were filling the air around us, and the entire time we were both being pestered by a bunch of gnats landing on us. I am a peaceful passive man by nature but my mind keeps going to dark places wanting to take revenge. Stink bombs, and other crazy thoughts fill my head. But I know that anything I do like that will open the door for their retribution on me.
Written by
Boston001
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I used to live in Central CT and born in Western PA which was tick central. I would be just as enraged as you are. If we did any spraying on our property, it was done by us and not put up into the air. We've found ways to kill hornets nests that aren't a bunch of chemicals. This is just likely a matter of people being lazy. Everything is outsourced these days. In CT we had a 2 acre lot that we managed. Now we live in a development on .2 acres and people are hiring lawn service for $100 a week. It takes us 20 minutes a week to do the lawn care and total maintenance. I'm so sorry you are dealing with this. The chemicals aren't safe and with no regulation, it sounds like the Dupont days of putting things in the water all over again. Sorry, I think I just got as mad as you are! I say this because the working theory on why so many folks in my family are getting Parkinsons is chemical exposure from where I grew up....which is now a dead and lonely manufacturing town. We all sure did play in our streams, lakes and rivers!
Americans are insane when it comes to their yards and property, the amount of money and pollution they put into the air. I do everything in my yard myself with an electric mower and electric edger, im cautious about even using the weed sprays in a bottle, i dont trust those or care about the weeds, as long as everything looks neat
Like you said, does spraying the entire yard even do anything, doesnt the spray just blow away with the wind?
The only thing i can think of is an air purifier in your house. I actually have one given to me that ive never used, id let you have it if i could
This is very bad for people, animals and the environment. The people who do this are inconsiderate and are poisoning themselves. Stay inside and consider wearing a tight mask in the area when you have to come and go or be outside.
I have called and written letters to everyone I can think of, including the Board of Health in the Town, County, and State that I live in and they tell me they will not take any action because the spray they are using is "Not Regulated". I have had 4 years to research the laws, and the odors fall under "Nuisance odor" interfering with my enjoyment of my property. Here in Massachusetts, these terms are used for farms and businesses that emit vapors. It would be my responsibility to take legal action and sadly I am in no financial position to do that. For me this goes way beyond a smell that I disagree with, it is a physical trespass in my lungs.
Really terrible. All of this spraying and lawn fertilizer is not good and I don't know why it is not outlawed, especially with all the concern about the environment.
Here in Massachusetts Department of Environmental Affairs is the executive level over the Department of Environmental Protection. I called them and they told me they went to the two companies I referenced and the chemicals they use are unregulated and that they will take no action to stop them. When I contacted the company that sprays and they provided me with a list of ingredients, all cleverly worded using natural things like plant extracts and oils. Rosemary, peppermint, and cedar oil to name a few. They make it sound so lovely but each treatment is about 20 gallons pumped into the air with a pressure washer machine
I don't have any help or advice to offer. Only a me too, kinda. It's a long story, this isn't the place. I just wanted to say that people who aren't being hurt can be awfully contemptuous. My neighbors, on both sides, told me it's my problem I was regularly forced out of my home all night by asthma triggered by their activities. I felt, hell, I still feel I lost a measure of trust and respect for "the common man". Seems "I got mine" drives many.
It really is sad that we can empathize with each other's story. I want to give people the benefit of the doubt, but that part of me is becoming more and more broken. I find it messed up that if it was loud music, or their dog coming into my yard and attacking, I could call the police but where is an air-born assault of pollution I can't.
Can't call the police. Not me. My neighbor blares his music till after 3 in the morning. I called the police and complained -- once. The result was he told my husband not to ever call the police again; that I am often "home alone", and he has "lots of friends". Oh, did I mention, his son is a police officer in our town?
And What is worse is I can't talk to people about how this is affecting my mental health, or they will turn the subject around and say the problem is with my mental illness and not how morally wrong it is to spray things on people without their consent
I understand better than you know. Of course it's morally and ethically wrong. That's not in question. It's weasly crap to associate the illness it's causing you with blaming the victim. So what? They don't get forced to care, they don't care, tough cookies.
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Depersonalization is making me feel crazy! 
Every 'No' feels like an insult or betrayal to me
It Ended but i don't feel like it did
