Spartan Mosquito Eradicator images

Spartan Mosquito Eradicator updates

UPDATE: The company has settled the fraud class-action and consumers can now submit claims for compensation.

Below are some developments relating to Spartan Mosquito’s attractive toxic sugar bait called the “Eradicator”. It’s a tube filled with water, sucrose, sodium chloride, and yeast.

Cease-and-desist order

I was curious whether the Mississippi Attorney General’s office had ever taken legal action against Spartan Mosquito (a Mississippi company), so I submitted a freedom-of-information request and was sent a letter, below, that directed the company to remove all mention of the Mississippi Department of Health from an advertisement.

Letter from Mississippi's Attorney to General to Jeremy Hirsch, founder of Spartan Mosquito

The Attorney General’s office sent the offending ad, too (below), which purported to summarize an experimental test of the Spartan Mosquito Eradicator. The ad asserts that the Mississippi Department of Health’s entomologist was involved and that the Department approved the results — both were false statements. Spartan Mosquito further emphasized a (non-existent) government collaboration by naming the case study “CSL4GOV-ZIKA”.

Spartan Mosquito's Zika brochure

Zika health claim

As an aside, the Department of Health’s entomologist was indeed at the site, but she was there to coordinate the massive spraying program that the Department of Health was using to minimize the potential mosquito-borne spread of Zika virus around the house of somebody who had the disease. Therefore, the reason there were no mosquitoes in the area is not because there were Spartan Mosquito Eradicators hanging from trees but because the mosquitoes were all killed by months of insecticide treatments. Spartan Mosquito knew the area was being sprayed with insecticide, too, but ignored that detail when it concluded that the presence of the Spartan Mosquito Eradicators resulted in “the most effective, longest-lasting Zika-control response on record anywhere”. Making a health claim violates both EPA and state rules.

Spartan Mosquito repeated the claim in a Facebook ad:

Spartan Mosquito's Zika advertisement on Facebook

… and in a television segment (jump to the 40-second mark):

Efficacy claims from boric acid formulation

It’s important to note that at the time of the Zika “case study”, the tubes appear to contain boric acid, not table salt. I determined that by freezing the above television clip (@ 1 min 9 secs) and looking at the ingredient list at the bottom of the label.

Spartan Mosquito Eradicator tubes showing boric acid as ingredient

Spartan Mosquito even gave one of its tubes to the Mississippi Department of Health’s entomologist, who took a photograph (below). This photograph confirms that the tubes used at the Lamar County site contained boric acid.

Spartan Mosquito Eradicator tube showing boric acid as ingredient

This means that the efficacy claims (“kills up to 95% of mosquitoes for 90 days”) on current boxes of Spartan Mosquito Eradicators are based on a version of the product with a different formulation. And, by extension, the graph is based on the boric-acid case study, too:

Spartan Mosquito Eradicator efficacy graph

Sale of unregistered, boric-acid version?

There’s another consequence of using boric acid (a Federally-regulated pesticide) in early versions of the Spartan Mosquito Eradicator — it means that the company was required to get an EPA registration to legally sell the device in the United States. It didn’t have one. I’m not sure exactly which states the Spartan Mosquito Eradicator was shipped to during this time. Or maybe it was just in-store sales in Mississippi.

States banning the Eradicator

You’d think given all of the above that the device would have been banned long ago, but most states allow the Spartan Mosquito Eradicator to be sold without restriction and with no alterations of its original packaging and claims. And retailers in these states can repeat and amplify those claims (“get your yard mosquito free”) to generate sales.

Sales of the Spartan Mosquito Eradicator have been blocked only in California, Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. States don’t announce why, usually, but one cited false and misleading claims, lack of acceptable efficacy data, and presence of numerous health claims on the company’s website (here are archived snapshots) and its Facebook page (company is in the process of hiding the claims).

Audit of 25(b)-exempt pesticides

A recent initiative by the Association of American Pesticide Control Officials (AAPCO) is likely generating fresh scrutiny of the Spartan Mosquito Eradicator. Per the group’s website, state regulators in Arizona, Indiana, Maine, Mississippi, South Dakota, Washington DC, and Wisconsin have all volunteered to make a list of “minimum risk” pesticides on the market in their respective areas and then evaluate how the products were vetted. The end goal of this exercise is to help all states standardize how such products are approved. The emphasis will be on efficacy data, and AAPCO has 2-pages of guidance on the topic, all of it very sensible. Here’s a sampling of what the group recommends:

  • Application should include a complete description of the materials and methods, statistical results, and conclusions.
  • “Data must be credible, independently collected, reproducible, and replicated.”
  • “Data should include a minimum of three (3) replicates per test.”
  • “Data should be generated with the product (formulation) submitted for registration.”
  • “Data should include an untreated control.”
  • Study director should have actual experience in designing and conducting experiments.

In regards to the latter requirement, to my knowledge Jeremy Hirsch did not have any experience in conducting mosquito trials. At the time of the study he owned a sandwich shop franchise:

In addition to standardizing the data requirements, participating states will also collect and study products labels. The part of the label that might be discussed for the Spartan Mosquito Eradicator is the name of the product itself. In AAPCO’s guidance, misleading brand names is a concern:

Screen shot of AAPCO rule on misleading brand names

Because “eradicate” means to eliminate entirely, state regulators might reasonably view “Eradicator” as misleading. Indeed, the EPA specifically identified “Eradicator” as a misleading brand name in 2002, years before the Spartan Mosquito Eradicator came to market.

What’s especially interesting about the audit is that Mississippi, Spartan Mosquito’s home state, is participating. And, according to the Mississippi Bureau of Plant Industry, Spartan Mosquito never submitted efficacy data even though doing so is a requirement (screenshot of its rules is below).

Mississippi's efficacy requirement for 25(b) pesticides

In contrast, some of participating states have seen the efficacy data and have banned sales of the device. I think the audit process (which involves numerous rounds of reports and meetings) could easily trigger stop-sale orders in those states that haven’t yet appreciated the device’s shortcomings. I suspect it might also trigger scrutiny of the company’s new version, the Spartan Mosquito Pro Tech, which reverts to the original formulation of boric acid.

10 thoughts on “Spartan Mosquito Eradicator updates

  1. Frank Edwards

    If I have 4 of these tubes from last year, am I owed money? Mine lists Boric acid. How do I make a claim?

    Reply
    1. Colin Purrington Post author

      I’m not sure how the claims will be handled yet but my understanding is that purchasers of both versions of the tubes will be able to ask for a refund. But you still have to wait, unfortunately. The settlement is waiting approval from a judge. I’ll post an update when I hear more.

      Reply
  2. Billy

    You bought a product, instructions for use are on the outside of the box, contents are very clearly stated on the packaging. I don’t think people understand how much you come in contact with boric acid every single day or the huge amounts of it that it takes just to make you uncomfortable. Judge needs to to throw this out, fine them for the misleading advertising and the epa regulation they skipped out on. Refunds. Jesus.

    Reply
  3. Elaine Lake

    We had not heard of this issue with Spartan Mosquito Eradicator. We bought 4 boxes (8 tubes) last year and hung them in our yard, and we bought 4 more boxes (8 tubes) this spring and have them hung in our yard. Last year we thought they worked – but it may only be because there was a very low number of mosquitoes due to the drought. So far this year the Eradicators are not working at all. We would like to be reimbursed. However, we did not save any receipts – we only have the tubes hanging around our property.

    Reply
    1. Colin Purrington Post author

      Do you have any credit card receipt? Maybe that will be sufficient. I’m sure there are hundreds of thousands of people in your situation. I’m hoping that Spartan Mosquito will be generous in giving refunds when they get around to announcing it. I’m not sure when that will happen though.

      Reply
  4. kevin bradley

    I have no mosquito larvae at all in any of my rain barrels during heavy mosquito pressure when they usually have dozens after a couple weeks or less. I fail to see how a little boric acid, brought to my rain barrels on the feet of the mosquitos that visited the tubes could leave so much boric acid in a 30 gallon tank of water to kill all larvae. Because it appears they have not been honest about their ingredients (I think they went from saying yeast and/or salt was killing the mosquitos to boric acid), I suspect that there is a much more potent chemical in the product that hasn’t been mentioned. Additionally, I am wondering how the yeast can survive in the tubes with boric acid, I believe yeast is very sensitive to it. And without the yeast I wonder how they would attract the mosquitos to the tubes.

    Reply
    1. Colin Purrington Post author

      There’s nothing but boric acid, yeast, sugar, and water in the Pro Techs. If you dumped the contents into a rain barrel that might kill mosquito larvae, but as you suspect there’s no way adults are bringing it in on their tarsi. Adults don’t even seem to go inside these contraptions. And, yes, boric acid kills yeast…there’s always less fungal growth in the Pro Techs than in the Eradicators.

      Reply
      1. kevin bradley

        How can you be sure that there is no additional toxin not listed on the label? How can it be explained that i have no mosquito larvae? I will set up a control, I will place stagnant water out of reach of the protech and see if larvae appear.

        Reply
        1. Colin Purrington Post author

          The government analyzes pesticides to make sure they adhere to claimed ingredient list. Spartan Mosquito includes either salt or boric acid as active ingredient. Neither controls mosquitoes so any effect is caused by something else.

          Reply

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