Add The California Post on Google An Orange County mom investigating the use of a pesticide in her community has claimed she developed intense itching after walking through an area where she alleges the product had recently been applied.
It comes amid growing concerns over potential ties between their use and reports of rare cancers in the wealthy enclave of Ladera Ranch.
Locals have identified up to 12 cases of Ewing sarcoma and synovial sarcoma diagnosed in and around the area, with residents tracking at least six deaths.
Residents are demanding that its homeowners association stop spraying pesticides as families mourn the young people who died. But the HOA says ditching conventional chemicals for organic landscaping would cost too much.
“No one should have to wonder whether what they’re breathing, drinking, or touching is harmful. This is about precaution, not causation,” John Gresko, a Ladera Ranch resident, father of five and founder of Protect Ladera, told The California Post.
The California Department of Public Health is currently investigating whether certain cancers are occurring at higher-than-expected rates there.
The concern has led Jenny Granero, a mom of three and founder of the resident advocacy group Ladera Goes Organic, to conduct her own investigations into chemicals being used.
One of the products she decided to investigate was Specticle G, a herbicide used to control weeds. She aid she went to one street on August 27 to look into its use.
Granero said she walked along the road and the slopes behind the surrounding homes for more than an hour. Later that day, she said, she developed severe itching across her arms and legs.
“I don’t recall the last time I’ve ever had anything like that,” Granero told the California Post. “It felt more like a rash, like an irritation of the skin because it was kind of widespread.”
The itching lasted three or four days, she said, and she scratched so much that she developed bruising, including a large bruise on her thigh.
Amid all the scratching, Granero contacted Poison Control and reported her symptoms and Specticle G, which she believed she may have encountered, though she was not certain it caused her itching.
Per their guidance, she later notified Ladera Ranch Maintenance Corporation, or LARMAC, the HOA. They recommended she seek medical attention if symptoms worsened.
Granero said she also reached out to O’Connell Landscape Management, LARMAC’s landscaping contractor, which she said was responsible for applying Specticle G.
She said a manager with O’Connell responded by asking her to identify on a map exactly where she had walked. “Show me on the map where you walked,” Granero recalled the manager telling her.
Granero said she was later in touch with the Orange County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office, where she was assigned a senior investigator and a case was ultimately opened.
She suspects they reached out because O’connell told them about her. She said investigators requested photographs of her bruising and wanted to meet her at the site to determine where she had walked.
She said both O’Connell and the county investigator questioned exactly where she had walked. “I walked where it said,” she said. “I went during the hours that they said.”
After her investigation, LARMAC sent a community-wide email announcing that the use of Specticle G would be paused, initially for 60 days and later extended to 120 days, through November 14.
The Post has reached out to the Orange County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office for information about the investigation and whether officials have determined if Granero’s symptoms were connected to pesticide exposure, but did not immediately hear back.
The California Post has also reached out to O’Connell Landscape Management for comment about Granero’s account, as well as Envu, which produces Specticle G.
Granero said she had been reviewing pesticide and herbicide application notices posted on her HOA’s website LaderaLife.com and researching the products as part of a broader push for more transparency around the chemicals used to maintain the local landscaping.
She plans to continue the work despite the time and effort it requires.
“To be honest, I’m tired, but I will continue because I do think it makes a difference, and I do think that it could potentially be saving lives,” she said.
Granero is now running for one of two open seats on LARMAC’s five-member board. She said residents encouraged her to run after seeing her advocacy over the past two months.
“Either I could change policy from the inside, or I could be on the outside chasing and exposing myself,” Granero said on why she’s running
If elected, Granero said she wants LARMAC to pause the use of all pesticides and herbicides while their use is being reviewed, rather than limiting the pause to specific products.
She is also pushing for residents to receive emails before applications and, eventually, text alerts telling them when and where chemicals will be used.
“At least I’d like for them to be compliant and give residents everything that we deserve,” Granero said, adding that she believes residents should receive an email about 48 hours before an application and that “a text alert would be even better.”
The California Post has reached out to LARMAC for comment about Granero’s allegations and proposed policy changes.
Granero has also questioned why Specticle G was being used while LARMAC was already reviewing its pest-management practices and had temporarily stopped the routine use of two other landscaping products.
She was also concerned by the Specticle G safety data sheet, which she said she reviewed after finding the application notice. The sheet contains the hazard statement “May cause cancer.”
“When I pulled up what the safety data sheet indicated, and I was reading information that said may cause cancer, that’s all I needed to know,” Granero said.
Meanwhile, other residents are also continuing to speak out about the use of chemicals like Specticle G.
During a fiery Ladera Ranch Maintenance Corporation meeting on Wednesday, at least 10 residents spoke about pesticide use.
One of those speakers was Margaret Novak, a Santa Margarita Water District board member who spoke in support of traditional pesticides and cited the need for them to keep Ladera Ranch’s landscaping looking pretty.
A mother in attendance who had lost her son to cancer earlier this year was visibly shaken and began crying during Novak’s speech.
That emotional clash captured the anger consuming the community.
There is no official confirmation that pesticides caused the cancers, and government health officials and community leaders have not established a connection.
But the deaths of several young people from rare cancers have fueled residents’ fears about what is being sprayed around their homes — while the HOA overseeing their meticulously maintained neighborhoods warns that going fully organic could come with a hefty price tag.
Families have publicly shared the names of young people who lost their battles with aggressive bone and tissue cancers: Ryan Regan, who died in October 2025; Lily Dalton, 23, who died in January 2026; and Brody Matteson, 17, who died in March 2026.
There is no official confirmation that pesticides caused the cancers.
Government health officials and community leaders have not established that connection.
But residents want an independent environmental investigation and a full ban on pesticides, not simply another temporary pause.
The HOA’s cost argument has become a major flashpoint.
“Unfortunately, we spend $44,000 a month on a certified landscape,” Jeff Moll, a resident who plans to run for an HOA board position, told The Post.
Residents fired back that LARMAC isn’t even looking for competing bids to determine whether a greener approach could be done for less.
More than 7,000 residents pay assessments to LARMAC, which serves a community of more than 23,000 people.
The pesticide battle dominated the meeting agenda.
Items B through G covered a comprehensive organic land-management plan, expansion of high-use areas where synthetic pesticides aren’t routinely used, landscape-management standards and evaluation of lower-use and limited-access areas, rodenticide and insecticide-use evaluation, the landscape-management progress report and next steps, and soil and water sampling.
