Login
You're viewing the mstdn.social public feed.
  • Colin Purringtoncolinpurrington@flipping.rocks
    May 23, 2025, 4:56 PM

    I'd be super grateful for help from California folks who frequent hardware and feed stores. If you see Spartan Mosquito Pro Techs for sale, would you please take a photo and send to me? I'm especially interested in pics from the 64 Home Depot locations that claim to have them in stock. The pesticide product does not have a registration to be sold in the state and I'm trying to get the manufacturer fined ($10,000 per instance). It's a scam device and the company deserves to go bankrupt ASAP. #HomeDepot #mosquitoes #california #pesticides #mississippi #epa #scam

    Store display of boxes of Spartan Mosquito Pro Techs, with various claims such as "kill mosquitoes on any property up to 1 acre for up to 30 days" and "100% American made." Each box has a photograph of a mosquito on it. $24.97 per box.
    Listing of addresses of Home Depots that illegally sell the Spartan Mosquito Pro Tech, a plastic tube filled with sugar, yeast, water, and boric acid. Next to each location is the number of boxes in stock. At the bottom is the total available: 6,926.
    💬 12🔄 289⭐ 5

Replies

  • Colin Purringtoncolinpurrington@flipping.rocks
    May 24, 2025, 9:59 AM

    Somebody suggested that I add the addresses of the Home Depots to the Alt Text of the second image but that exceeds my character limit so I'm including everything below. The number of boxes of Spartan Mosquito Pro Techs in stock at a particular store is in parentheses.

    12218 Apple Valley Rd, Apple Valley (29)
    905 El Camino Real, Atascadero (21)
    4700 GosfordRd, Bakersfield (308)
    401 W Ventura Blvd, Camarillo (119)
    6001 Madison Ave, Carmichael (20)
    2580 Notre Dame Blvd, Chico (165)
    845 W Shaw Ave, Clovis (50)
    520 US 101 North, Crescent City (26)
    1320 Eastlake Pkwy, Eastlake (29)
    9150 W Stockton Blvd, Elk Grove (56)
    2675 E Bidwell St, Folsom (22)
    16005 Sierra Lakes Pkwy, Fontana (337)
    1305 S Lone Hill Ave, Glendora (253)
    21787 Hesperian Blvd, Hayward (27)
    42100 Jackson St, Indio (204)
    18282 Collier Avenue, Lake Elsinore (388)
    20021 Lake Forest Dr, Lake Forest (147)
    44226 20th St W, Lancaster (27)
    1000 Groveland Ln, Lincoln (181)
    2960 Reynolds Ranch Pkwy, Lodi (27)
    1955 E Pacheco Blvd, Los Banos (165)
    250 Commerce Ave, Manteca (84)
    6140 Hamner Ave, Mira Loma (197)
    1415 E Hatch Rd, Modesto (350)
    860 E Dunne Ave, Morgan Hill (10)
    3838 W Vista Way, Oceanside (29)
    5755 Mission Ave, Oceanside (267)
    2980 S Euclid Avenue, Ontario (230)
    2150 3rd St, Oroville (227)
    401 W Esplanade Dr, Oxnard (29)
    340 W Ave P, Palmdale (27)
    38215 47th St E, Palmdale (27)
    600 Placerville Dr, Placerville (137)
    12175 Tech Center Dr, Poway (21)
    11884 Foothill Blvd, Rancho Cucamonga (284)
    2756 Sunrise Blvd, Rando Cordova (25)
    2650 Main St, Red Bluff (147)
    4825 Redwood Dr, Rohnert Park (52)
    324 N Sunrise Ave, Roseville (101)
    1461 Meadowview Rd , Sacramento (52)
    3611 Truxel Rd, Sacramento (324)
    5859 Antelope Rd, Sacramento (20)
    690 Riverpoint Ct, Sacramento (21)
    1890 N Davis Rd, Salinas (108)
    950 Dennery Rd , San Diego (254)
    1551 Froom Ranch Way, San Luis Obispo (26)
    111 Shoreline Pkwy, San Rafael (26)
    100 Bicentennial Way, Santa Rosa (51)
    1590 Canyon Del Rey Blvd, Seaside (27)
    3818 E Hammer Ln, Stockton (53)
    507 N Mill St, Tehachapi (92)
    32020 Temecula Parkway, Temecula (29)
    2461Naglee Rd, Tracy (57)
    350 N Orchard Ave, Ukiah (112)
    30055 Industrial Pkwy, Union City (27)
    1401 E 19th St, Upland (276)
    510 Orange Dr, Vacaville (52)
    1175 Admiral Callaghan Ln, Vallejo (26)
    15150 Bear Valley Rd, Victorville (28)
    15655 Roy Roger Dr, Victorville (29)
    2430 S Melrose Dr, Vista (135)
    6280 Hembree Ln, Windsor (29)
    1100 Tharp Rd, Yuba City (198)
    58705 29 Palms Hwy, Yucca Valley (29)

    💬 1🔄 1⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 5⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 1⭐ 0
  • Colin Purringtoncolinpurrington@flipping.rocks
    May 23, 2025, 6:30 PM

    @danielthedaring The grifters at Spartan Mosquito HQ should be in prison for lying to the EPA. That's unlikely to happen given the state of things so I'm channeling my anger into merely bankrupting them.

    💬 0🔄 2⭐ 1
  • 💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 1⭐ 0
  • Colin Purringtoncolinpurrington@flipping.rocks
    May 23, 2025, 7:28 PM

    @siin Oh, indeed! Spartan Mosquito is a Mississippi company that sells plastic tubes filled with water, yeast, sugar, and either table salt or boric acid. The ads claim that CO2 produced by the yeast attracts mosquitoes, which supposedly then crawl inside the tubes via small holes, drink the fluid, exit the tubes, and then die. And they are supposed to work for weeks or months depending on the version. It's all gobbledygook, of course, and none of that happens. But plenty of people in the United States are completely gullible and the owners are now millionaires. I have multiple blog posts on their grifting going back to 2019. They tried to sue me into bankruptcy when I publicized their scam. colinpurrington.com/2021/01/po

    💬 0🔄 18⭐ 0
  • draNgNondraNgNon@hachyderm.io
    May 23, 2025, 7:36 PM

    @colinpurrington is it worth trying to visit one not on this list to see if they are there? happy to help, but I'm on the SF peninsula and I don't see any listed.

    is it just Home Depot?

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • Colin Purringtoncolinpurrington@flipping.rocks
    May 23, 2025, 7:40 PM

    @draNgNon I don't think it's worth the trip unless you are there for something else. I spent several hours on Home Depot's website today checking for stores that had it in stock and most didn't. Other stores in California likely carry it, too, but it's hard for me to run an efficient search. I suspect a lot of rural feed stores would have it but without any indication online. Thank you for your interest! Really appreciate it.

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • draNgNondraNgNon@hachyderm.io
    May 23, 2025, 7:42 PM

    @colinpurrington ok. at some point in the next day or so we'll check out our local ACE and see if it's there. will let you know.

    Home Depot on a 3day weekend is going to be Bananas.

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • Ryan Finnieryan@m29.us
    May 23, 2025, 8:14 PM

    @colinpurrington So are they lying to Home Depot too? Because Home Depot is normally pretty up on California-specific restrictions (e.g. can't sell non-CA shower heads, generators... heck, there's a weird quirk where low-NOx water heaters are required only in part of my COUNTY (San Bernardino))

    💬 1🔄 1⭐ 0
  • Colin Purringtoncolinpurrington@flipping.rocks
    May 23, 2025, 9:22 PM

    @ryan Great question. Spartan Mosquito was fined over $4,000 several years ago so I was surprised they'd do it again and on such a grand scale. Could be a Home Depot screw-up if newbie orderer for California stores saw that product had an EPA registration and assumed it was OK to order. Fine still goes to maker, of course, and that could be $10,000 x 64 instances. 🍿

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • Colin Purringtoncolinpurrington@flipping.rocks
    May 24, 2025, 10:03 AM

    @lin I attempted to do that initially but my character limit was exceeded by approximately 900. So I just posted an all-text reply to my original post that includes all the addresses. Hope that works and thanks for nudge.

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • Ceceliahelianthropy@tech.lgbt
    May 27, 2025, 4:00 PM

    @colinpurrington I thought this was going to be about eliminating mosquitoes from the food chain (which has me worried). But, oh wow! Suing people for telling the truth? 😬

    That sounds like quite the ordeal. 😔

    *looks at name* I hope you get reimbursed!

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 2🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • Colin Purringtoncolinpurrington@flipping.rocks
    May 24, 2025, 11:44 AM

    @thuronyi Totally agree, though I've heard from my brother in Los Angeles that the Asian tiger mosquito has moved into the area. Spartan Mosquito tubes are partly a social marker, perhaps akin to bragging about one's ivermectin dose or bleach use. It's less about whether they work than what they communicate to your neighbors.

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • B Thuronyithuronyi@mstdn.science
    May 24, 2025, 11:45 AM

    @colinpurrington Yikes. Just learned about this saga from the article you linked, and it sounds depressingly like the culture war aspect is expanding even further. Thanks for your work here...

    💬 2🔄 0⭐ 0
  • B Thuronyithuronyi@mstdn.science
    May 24, 2025, 11:53 AM

    @colinpurrington I'm Swarthmore '07 although I don't think we crossed paths - I never took a single biology class, I guess in preparation for a career working with bacteria :)

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 1⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • nannnsss🌱🏴nannnsss@social.lol
    May 25, 2025, 4:14 AM

    @colinpurrington I, unfortunately, bought one of these and there were zero mosquitos inside of it whenever I checked and I noticed no difference. Grifters.

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • nannnsss🌱🏴nannnsss@social.lol
    May 27, 2025, 3:32 PM

    @colinpurrington

    "Thank you for your email. Our product is not a trap, mosquitoes will not die in the tube. The mosquitoes go to the tube and feed. The tube will attract mosquitoes to it. This is why we suggest hanging them 80 feet away from where you enjoy the outdoors. They will fly away and expire. 

    Have a great day

    Cindy"

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 0
  • Colin Purringtoncolinpurrington@flipping.rocks
    May 27, 2025, 4:41 PM

    @nannnsss LOL. Spartan Mosquito has probably sent that exact lie to tens of thousands customers. You gonna write them back? You could say something like. "Whenever I approach the tubes around my yard I never seem to see mosquitoes around them. Do they only come at night?" Also, you might ask how to initiate a refund.

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0