Skip to main content

New York Lobstermen Think Pesticide Is Causing Lobster Sickness

A story about dying lobsters in Long Island Sound and the possible link to methoprene use by the state of New York.

For the past decade, lobsters in the Long Island Sound have been ill and disappearing. While this may be perplexing to some, reports that local lobstermen believe that a pesticide called methoprene is to blame.

Methoprene has been added to storm drains since 1999 by the three New York counties—Suffolk, Nassau and Westchester—that border the Long Island Sound. It's used to kill mosquitoes that carry the West Nile virus, but no other state in the U.S. uses it.