Robert Van Den Bosch: Stop the Pesticide Conspiracy
(Page 3 of 12)
July/August 1979
By the Mother Earth News staff
PLOWBOY: What various factors make up an integrated control technique?
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VAN DEN BOSCH: In the first place, you have to remember that most species will not—if left to themselves—breed into infinite abundance. Neither will any animal or plant type typically crash suddenly into extinction. There is some "force" at work to keep all living populations with the possible exception of our own regulated ... and that natural control is what is commonly referred to as "the balance of nature".
. . . when we brought our killer chemicals into the act . . . we not only harmed many higher animals, but also destroyed great numbers of the beneficial insects that prey on other bugs!
Now it so happens that the components of the overall natural controlling forces are both biotic and physical. In other words, lions eat antelopes, puma eat deer, big fish eat little fish, mantises eat grasshoppers, and so on. Those are all examples of physical predation. And then, of course, there are the diseases and parasites that also play a biotic role in regulating populations.
In my work—which is mostly concerned with bugs, snails, and creatures of that sort—the use of predacious and parasitic insects is probably the main thrust. But integrated control is simply rational pest control . . . a combination of information, decision-making criteria, a variety of methods and materials, and naturally occurring pest mortality . . . which results in an effective and redeeming pest management system.
PLOWBOY: Where, if anywhere, do pesticides fit into this picture?
VAN DEN BOSCH: We occasionally use chemical insecticides ... but only to augment natural controls. Therefore, we've gotten ourselves deeply involved in the politics of chemical pest control . . . since pesticides—which really have the upper hand in today's insect-control scene—often interfere with the natural enemies that can prey upon an unwanted species. This interference has been both the product and the cause of a disruptive pattern of pest outbreaks all over the world ... which have followed, for the most part, the introduction of DDT.
The human race simply didn't realize—prior to the development of our arsenal of modern biocides—that there was a tremendous amount of natural biological regulation going on all around us. Therefore, when we brought our killer chemicals into the act-beginning, of course, with DDT—we not only harmed many higher animals, but also destroyed great numbers of the beneficial insects that prey on other bugs!
PLOWBOY: Most pesticides, after all, aren't particular about what—or whom—they kill. . . .
VAN DEN BOSCH: Exactly. And now the world is seeing a pattern of pest resurgence following chemical insecticide treatments. Such problems are termed "secondary pest outbreaks" . . . that is, infestations which involve the emergence of species lurking in the environment that were not numerous enough to be pestiferous . . . until all of the natural controls over them had been destroyed or disrupted by our poisons. This pattern has led to the global pesticide treadmill I mentioned before . . . a problem that's taking on the proportions of a disaster in some areas of the world.
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