{"id":240956,"date":"2026-04-21T21:56:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/240956\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T21:56:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:56:39","slug":"volunteers-clean-up-toxic-mothballs-left-on-st-pete-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/240956\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteers clean up toxic mothballs left on St. Pete Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is asking people to help report mothballs along our beaches.<\/p>\n

On Monday, officers with the FWC found the toxic balls on St. Pete Beach.<\/p>\n

“Unbelievably frustrating\u2026somebody should pay,” said Sandy Denton, who volunteered to clean up the mothballs.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay 28 caught up with Sandy Denton as she spent Tuesday afternoon walking along St. Pete Beach, looking for small white mothballs.<\/p>\n

“Extremely frustrating, I hope to God they catch whoever did this,” said Denton.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the FWC responded to reports of mothballs scattered near the sand dunes near the Lido residences on St. Pete Beach.<\/p>\n

Officials said the balls are toxic to wildlife and could have been placed to deter black skimmers from nesting.<\/p>\n

“Anger\u2026they should have every right to be out here as we do\u2026they are natural. This is their habitat, they should be here and they should be allowed to be here,” said Denton.<\/p>\n

Denton and her friend Karen Davis grabbed their bags and picked the balls up one by one.<\/p>\n

“Oh my God, there’s so many,” said Davis.<\/p>\n

Davis said she\u2019s frustrated that someone would endanger the wildlife on our beaches.<\/p>\n

“They are beautiful birds and they don\u2019t deserve to be murdered and that\u2019s what it is, it\u2019s murder,” said Davis.<\/p>\n

Black skimmers are protected in Florida and Davis said people should try to keep them safe.<\/p>\n

“We all complain a little bit if the birds are nesting in our favorite spot to sit\u2026but so what? It\u2019s temporary, move your chair, go somewhere else and find a new spot. It\u2019s not a big deal. We\u2019ve been doing this for years,” said Davis.<\/p>\n

Mothballs contain high amounts of pesticides. They can be harmful to wildlife and are illegal to use outdoors.<\/p>\n

“You get so angry\u2026very, very angry\u2026I mean, honestly,” said Davis.<\/p>\n

Officers with the FWC spent Monday picking up the mothballs and are actively looking for the person responsible.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Denton and Davis said they will continue picking up the mothballs as long as they are present on the beach.<\/p>\n

“We are the beach community we are going to stick together and we will get it cleaned up,” said Denton.<\/p>\n

Share Your Story with Casey

Casey Albritton is dedicated to telling your stories throughout South Pinellas County. From St. Petersburg to Largo, she\u2019s there to share the triumphs and struggles of the community she calls home. So, let Casey know about the stories that matter to you.
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Tampa Bay nursing homes cited for critical violations and placed on federal list of worst facilities<\/p>\n

Aventura at the Bay and Groves Center are among 88 nursing homes in the U.S. designated as special focus facilities due to serious, recurring deficiencies.<\/p>\n

Nursing homes cited for critical violations, placed on list of worst facilities<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is asking people to help report mothballs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[205,513,106453,4747,106221,596,106456,202,2149,204,203,199,201,200,3670,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-240956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-abc-action-news","9":"tag-beach","10":"tag-black-skimmer","11":"tag-fwc","12":"tag-mothballs","13":"tag-pinellas-county","14":"tag-skimmers","15":"tag-st-pete","16":"tag-st-pete-beach","17":"tag-st-pete-headlines","18":"tag-st-pete-news","19":"tag-st-petersburg","20":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","21":"tag-st-petersburg-news","22":"tag-tampa-bay-local-news","23":"tag-wfts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}