Many landscape/pest companies push mosquito & tick “barrier” treatments while promising “healthy landscapes.” The irony? The most common active ingredient in these products is pyrethrin (or its synthetic cousins like permethrin, bifenthrin, cypermethrin, etc.). These are marketed as “natural” because they come from chrysanthemum flowers — but “natural” does not mean safe.
What Pyrethrin Actually Does
It kills way more than mosquitoes and ticks.
Pyrethrins are broad-spectrum neurotoxins. They paralyze the nervous system of almost any insect they touch. That includes:
- Beneficial insects (bees, ladybugs, butterflies, predatory mites, parasitic wasps)
- Aquatic life (highly toxic to fish, shrimp, mayflies, and everything in your pond or nearby streams)
- Spiders, ants, beetles — basically the whole food web in your yard
Once you spray, you’re wiping out the natural predators that would normally keep pest populations in check.
Real Risks to People, Pets, and Children
- Applicators (you or the technician): Skin irritation, tingling/burning sensations, headaches, nausea, dizziness, and respiratory issues are common. Repeated exposure can affect the nervous system. Many pros don’t wear full PPE every time.
- Pets:
- Dogs tolerate it better but can still get tremors or drooling at high doses.
- Cats are extremely sensitive — they lack the liver enzyme to break it down quickly. Even walking across a treated lawn or grooming a treated dog can cause severe tremors, seizures, hypersalivation, and sometimes death.
- Children: Higher risk because of lower body weight, playing on the grass, and hand-to-mouth behavior. Can cause skin/eye irritation, breathing issues, and potential longer-term neurological concerns with repeated exposure.
Pyrethrins break down faster in sunlight than synthetic pyrethroids, but they still persist in soil, dust, and on foliage for weeks — and they’re extremely toxic to aquatic life even at tiny concentrations.
This Is Why We Do Things Differently at Stangl’s
We never use pyrethrins or any broad-spectrum sprays. Instead, we rebuild the living soil with our Nature’s Brew system (molasses, kelp, squid juice + beneficial microbes) + PUC & SRC. When the biology is healthy, trees, hedges, and lawns develop natural resistance — deeper roots, stronger cell walls, and fewer pest problems because the whole ecosystem is in balance.
Healthy soil = fewer mosquitoes and ticks naturally (they prefer stressed plants and bare spots). No fear-based sprays needed.
If your boxwoods, hedges, or trees are struggling and the spray cycle isn’t working, the real fix is underground.
DM me or visit stangls.com — we’ll look at your soil biology and show you what’s really going on.
Rooted in real health,
Unlocking Soil Wealth
Michael Stangl
Stangl’s Enviro Lawn Care
stangls.com