Had not noticed the "trip home FROM Australia" before in the 3rd hand gossip account in OP.

I can categorically say on 100s of flights FROM Australia I have taken over the past 35 years I have NEVER been sprayed.

By a FA, or even men in Star Wars suits.

theawesome1 has been conspicious by his/her absence during this thread I notice. :rolleyes:

I have only been 'spayed' twice; in 1989 & 1991, both times on Garuda & both times very perfunctorary.

Two FA's almost raced down the DC10s' aisles with their fingers on the buttons of what looked like Generic Brand Insect spray. I might have been hit by 3 microdrops...

Prior to the spraying an announcement advised the insecticide being used had been approved by the WHO!

See post #26.

Also here is the BA info on disinsection:
http://www.britishairways.com/travel...t/public/en_gb

And info from WHO:
http://www.who.int/ith/chapter02_04.html

So, as I noted earlier, it is not a WHO requirement. They set up guidelines that the individual governments then choose to enact as law. And India's insistence on spraying in flights from Europe to India to "avoid the spread of yellow fever from tropical countries" has a hollow ring to it. (Yes, I suppose it's possible to fly from Africa to London to India and bring a few infected mosquitoes with you but only on a mileage run!) I suspect that since we spray flights out of India for cooties, they do it in retaliation.

What's sad is how futile this is. Is cargo sprayed? Does the spray reach into the cabin's overhead bins, where insects could be happily crawling around in rollaboards for 8 hours feeding on cracker crumbs? Probably not.

Yes, it is sprayed on flights not operated by aircraft that have been treated with the persistent insecticide.
This is one reason the use of persistent insecticides is encouraged. And coming into Australia your carry-on bags are screened for potential sourced of insect problems such as fruit flies. Nothing short of "sheep-dipping" all incoming passengers is going to be fail-safe. But if it helps to reduce the risk then there is some benefit.

Actually, yes. Because if you spray at top of descent (which is what the pax see), you also have to spray the overhead bins before embarkation. See that document about current disinsection procedures.So given that both cargo and overhead bins are sprayed, why is it futile?

It is not 'futile' - nor is it 'sad' - it successfully protects a major industry in this country, which has a superb record re quarantine.

In 2003 we were sprayed on Lauda by FA's holding a small can. In 2004 on UA, no spraying.