History of pesticide use and integrated pest management.

1. DON’T YOU LOVE THE SMELL OF
MALATHION IN THE MORNING!
Rosmarie Kelly, PhD MPH
Public Health Entomologist
Georgia Division of Public Health
Atlanta, GA

2. ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
Why All The Concern About Pesticides Anyway?
Topics of discussion:
•Integrated pest management
•Pre-history
•History
•Application to mosquito control
•Mosquitoes and Public Health
•Nuisance problems and quality of life
•Disease issues
•The BIG picture
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3. Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
IPM reduces dependence on pesticides by integrating non-
chemical methods to help control or prevent pest populations.
IPM Practices
•Identify the pest
•Use surveillance of some type to
evaluate pest level
•Don’t make applications based on a
calendar
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4. What is a pest?
Anything that:
•Competes with humans, domestic animals, or
desirable plants for food or water
•Injures humans, animals, desirable plants, structures
or possessions
•Spreads disease to humans, domestic animals,
wildlife or desirable plants
•Annoys humans or domestic animals
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5. A Brief History of Pest Control:
The first farmers likely did not so much "control" as allow for pests
- that is, they planted enough for themselves and the pests (deer,
rabbits, insects, etc)
2500 BC: Ancient Sumerians used sulfur compounds to kill insects
- earliest record of insect pest control
1500 BC: First descriptions of cultural controls especially the
manipulation of planting dates
1200 BC: Botanical insecticides were being used for seed treatments
and as fungicides in China. The Chinese were also using mercury and
arsenical compounds to control body lice.
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6. A Brief History of Pest Control (cont):
lead arsenate
1860 - First use of arsenical insecticide
noted; use of Paris green mixed with
flour as insecticide for Colorado potato
beetle control.
1894 - First "spray calendar" invented.
http://entweb.clemson.edu/pesticid/100years/100yrH.htm
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7. A Brief History of Pest Control (cont):
1929: Pest resurgence after repeated applications of arsenical
pesticides documented in Texas
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8. A Brief History of Pest Control (cont):
1939: Recognition of insecticidal
properties of DDT
DDT was far less poisonous than the
pre-WWII arsenic compounds.
The phenomenal results with DDT
stimulated industry to look for
related types of chemicals.
By the late 1940's, there were
several other encouraging
insecticides available.
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9. Time magazine ad for DDT
BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY: The World Health Organization
estimates that during the period DDT was used, approximately 25
million lives were saved.
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10. A Brief History of Pest Control (cont):
TROUBLE IN PARADISE
1947: First documented case of pesticide resistance (common
house fly resistant to DDT)
1950's-60's: Widespread development of resistance to DDT and
other pesticides.
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11. Rachel Louise Carson (1907-1964)
Master’s degree in zoology from Johns Hopkins University
American Marine Biologist
1936 - Biologist US Bureau of Fisheries
Nature writer – 1950s
Credited with advancing the global environmental movement
1951 –Ocean Life Trilogy
The Sea Around Us
The Edge of the Sea
Under the Sea-Wind
Conservation Movement – 1950s
Problems related to synthetic pesticides
1962- Silent Spring
Led to a nationwide ban on DDT - 1970
Posthumous award – Presidential Medal of Freedom
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12. Response to Silent Spring led to public policy changes in 1970's.
1967: Introduction of the term Integrated Pest Management by R.F.
Smith and R. van den Bosch.
1969: US National Academy of Sciences formalized the term
Integrated Pest Management.
1970's: Widespread banning of DDT.
The overriding theme of Silent Spring
is the powerful—and often negative—
effect humans have on the natural
world.
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13. Natural Enemies
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16. What is IPM?
* A system utilizing multiple methods,
* A decision making process,
* A risk reduction system,
* Information intensive,
* Biologically based,
* Cost effective, and
* Site specific.
* Multiple tactics
legal, cultural, physical,
genetic, biological, chemical
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17. IPM Control Methods
• Legal control: following state and federal
control
guidelines that are designed to prevent the spread of
pests
• Cultural control: using crop rotation, cultivation,
control
sanitation, habitat modification, or removal of
sources of pest infestation
• Physical control: using barriers, traps, trap crops;
control
planting, fertilization, tillage, or harvest times
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18. IPM Control Methods
• Genetic control: using plant (and animal)
control
varieties that are resistant to pest injury
• Biological control: conservation or introduction
control
of predators, parasites, and diseases that suppress
or attack pests
• Chemical control: select and use the least toxic,
control
environmentally suitable pesticides in the lowest
effective amounts to control pests
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19. BENEFITS
•Provides long term results
•Environmentally friendly
•Reduces unnecessary chemical use and its liability
•Reduces risk of pesticide resistance
•Proactive, not reactive
•Detects a potential pest problem before it's a major problem
•Provides a written record of pest activities and control actions
•Promotes better community relationships
•Site-specific
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20. Damage Threshold
The damage boundary is the
lowest level of injury that
can be measured. This level
of injury occurs before
economic loss.
CONTROL NEEDED
A basic IPM principle ensues No
control
from the damage needed
boundary/economic damage
relationship; it is that no
injury level below the
damage boundary merits
suppression, but injury
predicted to result in
economic damage does.
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21. Economic Injury Level
Another of the basic
elements, the economic injury
level, is the lowest population
density that will cause
economic damage. The EIL is
the most basic of the decision
rules; it is a theoretical value
that, if actually attained by a
pest population, will result in
economic damage.
Therefore, the EIL is a
measure against which
we evaluate the destructive
status and potential
of a pest population.
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22. Economic threshold The economic threshold (ET)
differs from the EIL in that it is a
practical or operational rule,
rather than a theoretical one. It
is the population density at
which a control action should be
initiated to prevent an
increasing pest population from
reaching the economic injury
level.
Although measured in insect
density, the ET is actually a time
to take action, i.e., numbers are
simply an index of that time.
The ET is the action threshold.
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23. BARRIERS
•May be more expensive to implement - especially when first
starting IPM
•Requires everyone to take an active role
•Requires more skill and knowledge than traditional pest control
•Additional paperwork and communication
•Requires on-going training
•Persistent attention needed
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25. MOSQUITO MANAGEMENT
"A process consisting of the balanced use of
cultural, biological, and least-toxic chemical
procedures that are environmentally compatible
and economically feasible to reduce pest and
disease-vector populations to a tolerable level"
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26. To successfully control mosquitoes it is important to know:
1. Which mosquito species are locally important as the primary
source of intolerable annoyance or as vectors of disease.
2. Where the breeding sites of these mosquito species are located.
3. When the mosquitoes are developing in these breeding sites and
when the emergence of adult mosquitoes will take place.
4. What mosquito control measures are needed and can be applied
effectively, economically, and safely with minimal disruption to the
local environment.
5. How much funding will be required to coordinate and execute
the plan.
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27. INVESTIGATION
INSPECTION
IDENTIFICATION
MONITORING
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28. ACTION
PREVENTION
CONTROL
TOLERANCE LEVEL
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29. FOLLOW-UP
Ware County Mosquito Surveillance
4000 8
PRESPRAY
3500 7
POSTSPRAY
3000 6
# Ps columbiae (postspray)
# Ps columbiae (prespray)
EVALUATION
EDUCATION
2500 5
2000 4
1500 3
1000 2
500 1
0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6
trap site
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30. Tracking the Elusive Mosquito,
or Why Public Health (and the Public) Should Care
About Mosquitoes and Mosquito-Borne Diseases.
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31. Epidemic transmission of West Nile virus (WNV) in Sacramento County,
California, in 2005 prompted aerial application of pyrethrin, a mosquito
adulticide, over a large urban area.
Statistical analyses of geographic information system datasets indicated
that adulticiding reduced the number of human WNV cases within 2
treated areas compared with the untreated area of the county.
No new cases were reported in either of the treated areas after
adulticiding; 18 new cases were reported in the untreated area of
Sacramento County during this time.
Results indicated that the odds of infection after spraying were 6×
higher in the untreated area than in treated areas, and that the
treatments successfully disrupted the WNV transmission cycle.
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32. Pesticide Risk Assessments
…Further, our results suggest that, based on human-health criteria,
the risks from WNV exceed the risks from exposure to mosquito
insecticides.
…Because of the limitations in efficacy and availability of both
vaccines and therapeutic drugs, vector management often is the best
tool that military personnel have against most vector-borne
pathogens. … Overall, results indicate that health risks from
exposures to insecticides and personal protective measures used by
military personnel are low.
Therefore, we found no significant toxicological risks from typical
usage of these topical insect repellents.
http://landresources.montana.edu/WNV/
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33. Pesticide Risk Assessments
…Nontargets exposed to adulticides included small mammals, birds, as
well as aquatic vertebrates and invertebrates in a pond subject to
receiving the chemical via drift and runoff. Risk quotients were
obtained by comparing exposures to toxic endpoints. All risk quotients
were low indicating that risks to ecological receptors most likely
were small.
…assess acute impacts of mosquito adulticides (permethrin and d-
phenothrin) and larvicides (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis and
methoprene) on non-target aquatic and terrestrial arthropods after a
single application. …assess longer term impacts of permethrin on non-
target terrestrial arthropods after multiple repeated applications. …
nearly all of the responses evaluated for either study indicated few, if
any, deleterious effects from insecticide application.
http://landresources.montana.edu/WNV/
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34. Mosquitoes cause more
human suffering than any
other organism.
Every year, over two million
people worldwide die from
mosquito-borne diseases.
Class Insecta All insects – 3 main body divisions, 6 legs
Order Diptera All 2-winged flies
Family Culicidae All mosquitoes
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35. 4 Plasmodium spp (protozoan) P.
P.
ovale
falciparum
human MALARIA Anopheles spp mosquitoes P. malariae
P. vivax
On a world-wide basis, malaria remains the most
important human disease transmitted by
mosquitoes.
• estimated 400 million human cases
(mostly Africa & Asia)
• >2 million deaths annually
• in Africa, >1 in 20 children under 10 years
old die from malaria
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36. Even in the absence of diseases, mosquitoes can become so
abundant that they cause disruptions in community services and
cause severe stress in the affected local human, pet and livestock
populations.
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37. Misconceptions
•You can lead a chemical-free life
•Man-made chemicals are inherently dangerous
•Synthetic chemicals are causing cancers and other
diseases
•Exposure to chemical mixes is a ticking time-bomb
•It is beneficial to avoid man-made chemicals
• Natural = Safe
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38. Rachel Carson stated that: “For the first time in the
history of the world, every human being is now
subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals,
from the moment of conception until death.”
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“This statement is wrong: the vast bulk of the
chemicals humans are exposed to are natural, and
for every chemical some amount is dangerous”.
Bruce Ames
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39. Carson described fearful and insidious, but largely
fictional, DDT harm to wildlife
BENFICIAL: Her book launched the modern
environmental movement
DETRIMENTAL: “Tipping point” in campaign to create
fear of DDT and other insecticides (the Bambi Effect)
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40. Rachel Carson claimed DDT was pushing the robin to
brink of extinction.
FALSE: The robin was actually increasing in
population abundance during years of maximum use
of DDT.
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Rachel Carson brought to the public’s attention the
claim that DDT-induced eggshell thinning was driving
the bald eagle to extinction.
NOT THE WHOLE STORY:
•Long before advent of DDT, bald eagles already
eliminated from most of the lower 48 states.
•Bald eagles had been eliminated by hunting,
trapping and poisoning (known as “taking”).
•Bounties were paid for “taking” of eagles.
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41. EPA Hearings
“DDT is not a carcinogenic, mutagenic, or teratogenic
hazard to man. The uses of DDT do not have a deleterious
effect on freshwater fish, estuarine organisms, wild birds,
or other wildlife. The evidence in this proceeding supports
the conclusion that there is a present need for the
essential uses of DDT”
Judge Edmund Sweeney
April 26, 1972
40 CFR 164.32
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42. William Ruckelshaus overruled the EPA judgment on DDT
-Congressional Record, July 24 1972, pp. S11545-46
 Never attended the DDT hearings
 Never read the transcript
 Refused to release materials used in his decision
Quote from a letter written to Allan Grant, president of
the American Farm Bureau Federation, by William
Ruckelshaus:
“Decisions by the government involving the use of toxic
substances are political … The ultimate judgment remains
political.” (April 26, 1979)
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43. “A decision to ban the production of DDT in the US,
would result in a denial of the use of DDT to most of the
malarious areas of the world. The available evidence on
the very slight risks, if any, does not justify the US
making a unilateral decision that would so adversely
affect the future economic and social well-being of so
many other nations of the world”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
July 25, 1969
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45. Today is being commemorated around the globe as "World
Malaria Day. …Thanks to Rachel Carson's ode to a non-existent
natural wonderland allegedly devastated by toxic pesticides,
DDT became the target of the anti-chemical lobby, and its use
was virtually abandoned -- though late enough to spare the
wealthy West from typhus and malaria. Left behind were the
poor of sub-Saharan Africa and other tropical regions, and
millions have paid the price for chemophobic ideologues who
are themselves at no risk.
Gilbert Ross, M.D
25 April 08
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46. …in 1999, the West Nile virus had just been discovered in a few
discarded tires and birdbaths in the New York area. But when the
City, under Mayor Giuliani, tried to aggressively eradicate the
bugs, resistance cropped up - not to the pesticide, but from
"consumer advocacy" groups like PIRG. The spraying was severely
restricted. Guess what? West Nile Virus is now endemic
throughout the continental United States, and hundreds have
died, needlessly.
Gilbert Ross, M.D
25 April 08
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47. …in California … a perfectly safe, pheromone-altering compound is
also under attack, despite the fact that the insect it is designed to
fight threatens the breadbasket of California agriculture, the central
valley.
Gilbert Ross, M.D
25 April 08
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“Is what we are experiencing part of a sinister plan to poison (or worse) a
large populace, who more and more, is choosing an alternative and
chemical free lifestyle? It is unclear how much the government is aware of
this plan, but it is clear that the government goes out of their way to deny
and hide all serious reported health claims.”…“…I felt like the airplanes
spraying chemicals were attacking my very right to exist and be here.”
Rami Nagel
No Spray Coalition
31 Dec 2007
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48. “The city councilors … are well-
meaning, socially responsible
people. And when they came
across the huge threat posed to
their constituents by dihydrogen
monoxide they did what any
elected official should do: they
took steps to protect their H2O
community. A motion due to go
before the city legislature
proposed banning the potentially
deadly substance from within the
city boundaries.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/mar/24/usa.worlddispatch
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