Proposed Ban on Pesticides Bugs Wyoming Community : Federal effort to save an endangered toad is angering residents who must battle swarms of vexing mosquitoes.

Only one thing irks Laramie residents more than the vast swarms of mosquitoes that rise from surrounding meadows each spring to dine on the blood of man and beast alike.

It’s a proposed ban on the chemicals used to control those mosquitoes.

The proposal by the federal Environmental Protection Agency is designed to help save the Wyoming Toad, an endangered species barely clinging to existence by its stout little toes. It would prohibit using any of 43 chemicals within one mile of standing water in a 970-square-mile region.

The trouble is that there is hardly a place in the county less than a mile from a river, lake or soggy hayfield this time of year. Nor is there hard evidence that the suspect pesticides actually harm the toad.

The ruckus over the proposal illustrates how a government agency, with the best of intentions, can divide a community and possibly do more harm than good to the animal it wants to protect, say irate residents and biologists.

“It’s one of those blunders government makes in love and war over the environment,” said George Baxter, the University of Wyoming professor emeritus of zoology after whom the Wyoming Toad, Bufo hemiophrys baxteri , is named. “Well, the name ‘Baxter’ doesn’t go over too well in Laramie anymore.”

Mosquitoes are no small problem in Laramie and Albany County. Their bites leave dime-size welts. They can make cows huddle and stop eating. They force people to stay indoors or venture out only when lathered in bug repellent.

Residents say they fear that the ban would worsen Laramie’s mosquito problem and decimate ranching, tourism and recreation at a time when the city is trying hard to attract businesses and jobs.

Biologists feverishly working to save the toad contend that EPA officials erred by failing to consult with toad experts and townspeople before making the proposal public.

“All the EPA did was make an instant 25,000 enemies of the toad around here,” said Wyoming Game and Fish Department veterinarian Tom Thorne, who is a member of a toad recovery team. “Now, recovery team efforts are being distracted by debate over proposed pesticide restrictions at a time when the toads need lots of friends.”

Hoping to limit the pesticide proposal to a smaller area, state, county and city officials plan this year to send teams of volunteers, armed with flashlights and bug repellent, into wetlands and pastures at night to search for the toads.

The aim of the toad roundups will be to determine which areas are “clear” of toads and therefore eligible for spraying.

“We’re talking about forays stumbling through cowpies and mosquitoes,” said Stephenie Whitman, director of environmental control for the City of Laramie. “We’re also talking about clearing at least 900 square miles, which could potentially cost a lot of time and money.”

As toad posses are combing the plains, a Wyoming Toad Task Force will be trying to draft a compromise that will protect the amphibian and allow for spraying, perhaps with pesticides not on the EPA hit list.

Federal officials have yet to demonstrate a better, less costly means of mosquito control than spraying malathion, which is high on the list of chemicals the EPA says must not be used.

“I wish I could get some of those EPA guys out in my fields naked when the mosquitoes are thicker than hair on a dog’s back,” said Laramie rancher Harrison Talbott, who tends cattle and sheep on his 6,000-acre spread. “Then they’d change their minds.”

“Golly, I’d hate to volunteer for that !” responded Ed Stearns, spokesman for the EPA in Denver, who said his agency has been trying to stir interest in the proposed ban since 1987. “This is our third toad notice. For some reason, it really hit a nerve.”

Meanwhile, the 2-inch-long, dark-brown-and-gray toads’ woes are getting worse by the day, and experts say its demise may be linked to similar rapid population declines among amphibians across the United States and around the world.

The problem, they say, may be a sign of continuing degradation of the environment because many amphibians absorb pollutants, from both water and soil, through their skin.

The Wyoming Toad once thrived on the flood plains of the Laramie Basin. It is believed that more than 10,000 years ago, glaciers isolated the animal from a more common toad of the same species in Canada.

Today, only about 100 wild toads are thought to exist at Mortenson Lake, about 12 miles southwest of Laramie. Many of them are suffering from a bacterial infection called red leg, as well as a fungus disease and unseasonably cold temperatures.

“They are virtually extinct,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Stephen Corn, who keeps track of the wild toads. “The population at Mortenson Lake did not reproduce last year. This year, we have not seen or even heard one.”

However, another 55 toads are fairing better in captivity. Nineteen of them are in closely monitored screen enclosures installed along the shore of nearby Lake George under a breeding program, which, if successful, could produce toads to be reintroduced into the wild.

Braving bitterly cold wind and rain, Corn and Baxter visited the Lake George enclosures one day last week to see how baby toads reared there last summer were dealing with a cold snap.

They turned up a handful of toads crawling sluggishly through grass and reeds at the water’s edge.

“This is one of the places that used to have lots of wild toads in the mid-1970s,” said Baxter, taking measured steps to avoid stepping on one of the toads.

“It’s sad,” Corn said. “But it’s entirely possible that this captive-breeding population will be the only Wyoming Toads left by the end of the year.”