Even if it were dipped in melted butter, you would never think of eating a common house mosquito.

Yet mosquitoes and lobsters have a lot in common, so much so that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed a bill into law earlier this month that aims to limit the use of two common mosquito-control chemicals, fearing that they might sicken lobsters, too.

The two are the larvicide methoprene, also known by its trade name Altosid, and the broad-spectrum adult insecticide resmethrin, sold as Scourge and Crossfire.

"Methoprene is a contact poison -- it kills on contact," said state Rep. Terry Backer, D-Stratford, who fought for passage of the bill. "And the point of the bill (HR 6441) is that you don't put known toxins into Long Island Sound."

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Relatively speaking
Culex pipiens (common house mosquito) vs. Homarus americanus (American lobster): One lives in the ocean, the other on land. One has six legs, the other 10. But they have a lot in common, such as:
membership in the same major grouping of animals, the arthropod phylum, or Arthropoda, Greek for "jointed foot."
external skeletons made of chitin, a long-chain sugar molecule
a single pair of eyes
one pair of antennae
a segmented body plan
an open circulatory system
likely evolved from the same common ancestor about 400 million years ago
share much of the same DNA

Backer said that lobsters have been found in the sound with these substances.

"Not a large sample, but enough to show that these poisons get into the Sound," he said. "The bill stops short of being a ban, but it does reduce the exposure of poisons in the sound."

For years, lobstermen operating in Connecticut waters have suggested that the use of the two chemicals has had a role in the die-off of lobsters seen in Long Island Sound, particularly since the first state outbreaks of West Nile virus were seen in 1999. The virus is carried by Culex pipiens, or the common house mosquito. In 1998, an exceptional harvest of 3.8 million pounds of lobsters was pulled from Connecticut waters; in 2011, that figure dropped to just 142,000 pounds.

The new law limits the use of methoprene and resmethrin within 1,000 feet of the Sound shoreline, except in New Haven, which was exempted because of a West Nile virus death there. There is a provision in the bill to lift the restriction in the event of an outbreak of the virus.

Still, the American Mosquito Control Association, a trade group, says there is no scientific rationale for the restrictions, and that both substances break down quickly and have been used safely for the last 30 to 40 years.





He noted that resmethrin isn't used in water.





