Pest Control and Pesticides

Questions for Today:

• What is a pest and pesticides?

• What are the advantages and dis advantages for using synthetic pesticides?

• What is DDT?

• What are some laws and treaties dealing with Pesticide use?

• What are alternatives to pesticide use?

Pests and Pesticides

• Pest: any species that interferes with human welfare.– Competing for food– Destroying buildings– Spreading disease– Invading Ecosystems

• Only about 100 species of plants, animals, fungi, and microbes cause damage to crops we grow.

Pests and Pesticides

• In natural ecosystems, natural predators control pest populations.

• Pesticides – chemicals used to kill or control populations of organisms that human consider undesirable.– Insecticides– Herbicides– Fungicides– Rodenticides

Pests and Pesticides

• Two types of pesticides:– First-generation Pesticides

• Natural chemicals borrowed from plants• Mimicking Nature

– Nicotine Sulfate from tobacco plants as a natural insecticide

– Second-generation Pesticides• A chemical produced in a laboratory setting• DDT

– Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane

DDT and Silent Spring

• DDT was the first second-generation pesticide

• In the 1940s and 50s, it was the most used pesticide on the market.

• Sprayed in residential areas to protect and inhibit mosquito growth

DDT and Silent Spring

• In 1962, Rachel Carson, at the behest of a friend, investigates the sudden agonizing deaths of birds in an area.– Found that areas sprayed with DDT caused the death

of Fish species, local birds, and small cats.– In bird eggs, DDT can cause shell thinning causing

eggs to prematurely break.

• DDT can be linked to the depletion of the American Bald Eagle, Brown Pelican, Peregrine Falcon, and Sea Osprey.

DDT and Silent Spring

• Rachel Carson published her findings in a book entitled, Silent Spring.– In reference to the death of song birds before

spring time.

• One of the first Environmental Science books to be published.– Embraced by the public and politicians alike. – Helped pass the FIFRA

Synthetic Pesticides

• DDT is banned from use in the United States.

• Most common herbicide today is Glyphosate, Roundup.

• Other synthetic pesticides used are Broad-Spectrum, Malathion and Parathion and Narrow-spectrum Pesticides.

• Some Synthetic Pesticides undergo biomagnification.

Advantages to Syn. Pesticides

• Save Human lives

• Increase Food Supplies

• Increase Profits for farmers

• Work Fast

• If used properly, health risks are low

• Newer pest control methods are safer and more effective

Disadvantages of Syn. Pesticides

• Accelerate the development of pesticide resistant pests.

• Places farmers on a financial, pesticide treadmill

• Some Insecticides kill natural predators and lowers biodiversity

• Pesticides travel

• Threaten Human Health

Laws and Treaties

• Three agencies control the use of pesticides.– EPA– USDA– FDA

• In 1947, in response to Silent Spring, the government passed the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act.

FIFRA and Food Quality Protection Act

• FIFRA mandates that the EPA muse assess the health risks of the active ingredients in pesticides already in use.– Only 10% of the ingredient in pesticides have

been evaluated since 1972.

• Food Quality Protection Act– Requires the EPA to reduced the allowed

levels of pesticide residues in food by a factor of 10 when there is inadequate information on the potentially harmful effects on children.

Alternative Pest Control

• Fool the pest– Crop Rotating

• Provide Homes for pest enemies• Implant genetic resistance• Bring in Natural Enemies• Use insect perfumes• Bring in Hormones• Scald them with hot water