Chapter 8 Seven unnecessary havoc

As man moved toward his proclaimed goal of conquering nature, he had written a harrowing record of destruction not only directly affecting the earth in which he lived, but also endangering the Humans share nature with other life.The history of recent centuries has its darker episodes—the slaughter of bison on the western plains;In cases such as these, we are now adding a new content and a new type of damage - the indiscriminate spraying of chemical pesticides on the earth, causing the destruction of birds, mammals, fish, and indeed of all species. species of wildlife are directly harmed. According to the philosophy that is currently guiding our destiny, nothing seems to hinder the use of sprayers.Incidental victims in one's battle against insects are insignificant; if foals, pheasants, raccoons, cats, and even livestock happen to live in the same place as the insect to be exterminated, and are killed by the insecticidal poison, then, No one should protest about this.

Residents who wish to do justice to the loss of wildlife are in a position today that does not know what to do.Outside opinion is divided, with conservationists and many wildlife biologists on the side, arguing that the costs of spraying have been severe and sometimes catastrophic.But the control agencies, on the other hand, try to categorically deny that spraying will cause any damage, or to think that even some damage is insignificant.Which view should we accept? The certainty of the evidence is the most important.Wildlife experts on site are certainly best qualified to detect and explain wildlife loss.Entomologists, who specialize in insects, cannot see the problem clearly, and they do not intellectually expect to see the ill effects of their control programs.Even those engaged in control in the state and federal governments, and of course the manufacturers of the chemicals - they vehemently deny the facts reported by the biologists, who claim to have seen only minor harm to wildlife.Just like the pastor and the Levite in the biblical story, they do not communicate because of their bad relationship with each other.Even if we benevolently interpret their denial as due to their indifference to experts and those who have an interest in it, this by no means means that we must admit that they have evidence.

The best way to form our own opinion is to consult some of the major control programs and witnesses who are familiar with the way of life of wild animals and who are not prejudiced against the use of chemicals, when the poisonous water rains from the sky into the wildlife world What exactly happened.For birders, for suburbanites who rejoice in the birds in their gardens, for hunters, fishermen, or for those exploring wilderness areas, anything that causes damage to an area's wildlife (even during the year ) will surely deprive them of their legal right to enjoyment.This is a valid point.As sometimes happens, although some birds, mammals, and fish are able to re-emerge after a single spraying, the really big damage has been done.

but.Such redevelopment is not so easy.Spraying is generally carried out repeatedly.It is difficult to leave holes in this type of spraying to allow wildlife a chance to recover.Usually the result of spraying is to poison the environment, a lethal trap in which not only the original organisms die, but also those who settle in.The larger the area sprayed, the more serious the danger.Because the oasis of safety no longer exists.Now, thousands or even millions of acres are sprayed as a unit in a decade incorporated into insect control programs; a decade in which private and group spraying, increasingly active, Records of destruction and death have piled up.Let's examine the plans and see what has happened.

In the fall of 1959, more than 27,000 acres of southeastern Michigan, including the Detroit suburbs, were sprayed with high doses of aerial aldrin, one of the most dangerous chlorinated hydrocarbons.The program is a joint effort between the Michigan Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of Agriculture; its stated purpose is to control the Japanese beetle. It does not appear that such drastic, dangerous action is necessary.Instead, one of the state's best known and most learned naturalists, W. P. Nikel, disagreed when he spent much of each summer in southern Michigan Spending time in the fields, he declared: "For more than two decades, in my own direct experience, there have been very few Japanese beetles in the city of Detroit. Over time, the beetle populations have not shown any noticeable I have seen only one Japanese beetle in its natural environment, except for a few in the government traps in Detroit. . . . so that I have been deprived of any information concerning the increase in the number of insects."

The official message from the state agency simply announced that the beetle had "emerged" in the designated area for aerial raids.Despite the lack of justification, the program was carried on because the state supplied the manpower and supervised its implementation, because the federal government provided equipment and additional personnel, and because the townships were willing to pay for the pesticides. The Japanese beetle, an insect accidentally imported into the United States, was discovered in New Jersey in 1916 when several shiny beetles with a metallic green color were found in a nursery near Riverton.The beetles were initially unidentifiable and later identified as common inhabitants of the main island of Japan.Apparently, the beetles were brought into the United States by nursery order import before the 1912 restriction was announced.

From where it first entered, the Japanese beetle has gradually spread to many states east of the Mississippi River, where the temperature and rainfall conditions are favorable for the beetle.The outward movement of beetles across their previous distribution boundaries occurs every year.In the eastern region, where the beetles have been colonized longest, efforts have been made to enforce natural control.Wherever natural control has been exercised, the beetle has been kept in low numbers, as many records attest. Notwithstanding this record of reasonable control of the beetle in the East, the Midwestern states, now on the fringes of the beetle's distribution, have mounted an attack capable of wiping out the worst enemy, not just the common pest; The most dangerous chemicals were used in an attempt to exterminate the beetles, but in the end poisoned large numbers of people, homes and all wild life.These programs to eradicate the Japanese beetle have resulted in an alarming loss of animal life and exposed humans to undeniable dangers.In the name of beetle control, areas of Michigan, Kentucky, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri were inundated with chemical spraying.

The spraying in Michigan was one of the first large-scale aerial attacks on Japanese beetles.Aldrin (which is the most toxic of all the chemicals) was chosen not for its uniqueness in controlling Japanese beetles, but simply to save money—aldrin was the cheapest of the compounds available.While the official state publication recognized aldrin as a "poison," it implied that its use in populated areas would pose no danger to humans. (The official answer to the question "What precautions should I take?" is "It doesn't matter to you.") Regarding the spraying effect, a Federal Airlines official was later quoted In a local publication: "This is a safe practice." A representative of the Detroit Department of Landscape and Recreation further assured: "The powder is harmless to humans and will not harm plants or animals. Victimized." As one might well imagine, none of the official staff consulted the very useful reports published by the US Public Health Institute, the Fish and Wildlife Survey, or the data on the acute toxicity of aldrin.

Low-altitude aircraft began flying over the Detroit area under Michigan's pest eradication law, which allows the state to spray indiscriminately without notifying or obtaining the consent of landowners.City authorities, as well as Federal Airlines, were immediately overwhelmed by concerns from residents.With nearly 800 questionings received in an hour, the police asked radio stations, television stations and newspapers to "tell viewers what they're seeing now and to inform them that it's safe," according to the Detroit news report. ’” Federal Airlines safety officers assured the public that “these planes are very carefully monitored” and that “low-flying is authorized.”In another somewhat misguided effort to allay public fear, the safety officer further explained that these planes have emergency valves that allow the plane to dump its full load at any time.Thank goodness it didn't work out.But when these planes were on their missions, the insecticide pellets fell on beetles and people alike, and the "harmless" poison rained down on people shopping or going to work , landing on children coming home from school for lunch.Housewives swept small particles, described as "snow-looking," from porches and sidewalks.As the Atopia Society of Michigan later pointed out: "The small white pellets of aldrin and clay (no bigger than the tip of a needle) entered by the millions into the ceiling cavities of the roof, the gutters along the roof and in the crevices of bark and twigs . . . when it snows and rains, every puddle becomes a deadly potion."

Within days of the dusting, the Detroit Atopian Society began receiving calls for the birds.According to Ann Bowles, secretary of the Atopian Society, "The first sign that people were concerned about the effects of spraying was when I got a call on Sunday morning from a woman who reported that when she came home from church, she saw Lots of dead and dying birds. It was sprayed on Thursday. She said there were no birds flying in the area at all. Finally, she found a dead bird in her backyard, as did neighbors Dead voles." All the calls Mr. Bowles received that day reported that "massive numbers of birds died and no live birds in sight... People who have been raising wild horses all the time say there are no birds left at all ’” The dying birds picked up were clearly the classic symptoms of pesticide poisoning: trembling, loss of flight, paralysis, convulsions.

The creatures immediately affected are not birds.A local veterinarian reported that his office was full of seekers for dogs and cats who had suddenly become ill.It appears that the cats who are meticulously grooming their fur and licking their paws are the ones who suffer the most.Their symptoms are characterized by severe diarrhea, vomiting and convulsions.The only advice the veterinarian can give to these seekers is not to let the animal go out unnecessarily, and if the animal does go out, wash its paws quickly. (But chlorinated hydrocarbons are indelible from fruit or vegetables, so this measure offers limited protection.) Although the town board of sanitation insisted that the birds must have been killed by "some other spray," and that the throat irritation and chest irritation that followed aldrin's administration must also have been due to "some other cause." ", but the local health department has received a steady stream of complaints.A distinguished Detroit physician was called in to see four patients who fell ill within an hour after being exposed to insecticide while watching an airplane spray.The patients shared the same symptoms: nausea, vomiting, chills, fever, unusual fatigue, and coughing. This Detroit experience has been repeated in many other villages and towns as a means of chemically eradicating the Japanese beetle.Hundreds of dead and dying birds were picked up on Lane Island, Illinois.Data from bird collectors indicate that 80 percent of the songbirds here have been sacrificed. In 1959, more than 3,000 acres of land in Chalet, Illinois were treated with heptachlor.According to a report by a local sportsman's club, the birds were "virtually wiped out" where they had been sprayed.Numerous dead rabbits, muskrats, kangaroos and fish were also found, and even a local school collected insecticide-killed birds as a scientific exercise. Probably no town has suffered more for a beetle-free world than Sheldon and the surrounding area of ​​Irokos in eastern Illinois. In 1954, the USDA and Illinois Department of Agriculture launched the Japanese Beetle Eradication Campaign along the route of the beetle's invasion of Illinois, with high hopes and indeed assurances that widespread spraying would wipe out the invasive species. beetle.In the year of the first "wipe out campaign," dieldrin was sprayed from the air over 1,400 acres.An additional 2,600 acres were treated in the same way in 1955, and the mission was considered complete.Then, more and more places requested the use of chemical treatments, and by the end of 1961, 131,000 acres had been sprayed with chemicals.Even in the first year of the program, wildlife and poultry were severely poisoned.Chemical treatment continued, but it was not consulted with either the US Fish and Wildlife Survey or the Illinois State Game Management Division. (However, in the spring of 1960, Federal Department of Agriculture officials opposed a bill requiring prior consultation before a congressional committee. They euphemistically declared that the bill was unnecessary because cooperation and consultation were "regular." These officials did not care Co-operation in those places cannot reach "Washington level". Also hear them clearly profess their reluctance to consult with the State Department of Fish and Game.) While funding for chemical controls continues to pour in, biologists at the Illinois Natural History Survey who wish to measure the harm chemical controls pose to wildlife are forced to do so with little to no funding. Work. In 1954, only $1,100 was available for field helpers, and in 1955 no funds were provided.Despite these difficulties paralyzing the work, the biologists have synthesized facts that collectively paint a picture of unprecedented devastation of wildlife—a devastation that would have It became immediately obvious. The incidence of poisoning in insect-eating birds depends not only on the poison used, but also on how it is applied.During the early execution of Salton's program, dieldrin was applied at a rate of three pounds per acre.In order to understand the effects of dieldrin on birds, one need only remember that in laboratory experiments on quail, dieldrin has been shown to be fifty times more toxic than DDT.The amount of dieldrin sprayed on the Salton lands was therefore equivalent to about 150 pounds of DDT per acre!And this is only a minimum value, because when spraying, there is a phenomenon of repeated spraying along the edges and corners of the field. When the chemical seeps into the soil, the poisoned beetle's young maggots crawl to the ground, where they die for a while, making them attractive to insect-eating birds.Dead and dying insects of all types were abundant within two weeks after spraying.It is easy to imagine the impact on the numbers of birds.Brown thresher birds, starlings, larks, pulsatillas and pheasants were virtually wiped out.According to the biologist's report, the robin is "virtually extinct."After a light rain, many dead earthworms can be seen; it is possible that the robins ate these poisonous earthworms.For other birds, too, the rain, which was once beneficial, becomes a destructive potion through the insidious force of poison, which enters the bird's life.I have seen birds that drank and bathed in rain puddles inevitably die a few days after spraying.The birds that survived all showed signs of depression.Although several nests and eggs were found in the treated areas, there were no chicks. Among mammals, voles are practically extinct; their cripples are found to be characterized by violent death by poisoning.Dead muskrats were found in the treated areas and dead rabbits were found in the fields.The lemur was a relatively common animal in the town, but after the spraying, it also disappeared. After the war on the beetles was waged, it was a rare thing to have a single cat survive on any farm in the Salton area.Ninety percent of the cats on the farm fell victim to dieldrin within a season of spraying.This would have been foreseeable, since these poisons have been poignantly documented elsewhere.Cats are very sensitive to all insecticides, but seem to be particularly sensitive to dieldrin.During the antimalarial campaign conducted by the World Health Organization in West Java, many cats were reported to have died.So many cats were killed in central Java that the price of a cat more than doubled.Likewise, when Venezuela was sprayed, the World Health Organization received reports that cats had been reduced to the status of a rare animal. In Salton not only wildlife but even poultry were killed in the insect extermination campaign.Observations of several flocks of sheep and cattle indicated that they had been poisoned and died, which also threatened the livestock.The Natural History Survey report described one of these events: Sheep were driven across a gravel road from a field that had been sprayed with dieldrin on May 6 to an unsprayed field with a Small pastures planted with fine wild pastures.Apparently some of the spraying powder crossed the road and onto the pasture as the flock showed symptoms of poisoning almost immediately...they lost interest in their food and were extremely restless and they were circling along the pasture fence , obviously trying to find a way out...they refused to be chased, they barked almost constantly, stood there, drooping their heads; finally, they were taken out of the pasture..., they desperately wanted to drink water.Two dead sheep were found in a creek running through the pasture, and the remaining sheep were driven out of that creek several times, with several having to be pulled out of the water forcefully.Three sheep eventually died; those that remained regained their full appearance. This was the situation at the end of 1955.Although the chemical warfare has been going on for years, the trickle of funding for research efforts has completely dried up.The money needed to conduct research on the relationship between wildlife and insect pesticides is included in an annual budget; this annual budget is presented to the Illinois Legislature by the Natural History Survey, but this budget must be paid in the first project has been excluded.It wasn't until 1960 that it was discovered that the money had somehow been paid to a fieldwork assistant who did a job that would have required four. When biologists resumed studies that had been interrupted in 1955, little had changed in the barren picture of wildlife loss.At this time, the chemical drug used has changed to the more toxic aldrin. Experiments on quail have shown that the toxicity of aldrin is 100-300 times that of DDT.By 1960, every wild mammal that inhabited the area had been lost.Things were even worse for the birds.In the small town of Donaing, the robin has disappeared, and the same has happened to the pulsatilla, starling, and thresher bird.Elsewhere, these and many other birds have declined considerably.The consequences of this beetle campaign were felt acutely by pheasant hunters.On the powder-treated land, the number of bird nests was reduced by almost 50 percent, and the number of chicks hatched per nest was also reduced.A few years ago, these places were good places to hunt pheasants, but now because there is nothing to catch, no one cares about them. Despite the havoc that has been wrought in the name of exterminating the Japanese beetle, and despite the chemical treatment of more than 100,000 acres of land in the city of Inokas over eight years, the result appears to have been only a temporary pacification of the insect, Japan The beetle continues to move west.The full extent of the cost of this ineffective program may never be known, because the results determined by biologists in Illinois are only a minimum.Had the research program been adequately funded and full reporting allowed, the devastation revealed would have been even more horrific.But over the eight years of the program, only $6,000 was provided for the biological field research.Meanwhile, the federal government spent nearly $735,000 on control efforts, and state governments added thousands more.Thus, the total cost of the research was a fraction—one percent—of the cost of the chemical spraying program. Spraying programs in the Midwest have been carried out in a state of panic, as if the spread of the beetle had created an extremely dangerous situation in which any means would be used to repel the beetle.This is certainly not the case, and certainly would not have acquiesced if the chemically infested villages had been familiar with the early history of the Japanese beetle in America. Fortunately for the eastern states, which were invaded by beetles before the invention of synthetic insecticides, they not only avoided the infestation, but controlled the Japanese beetle using methods that were not harmful to other organisms.Nowhere in the East has the drug been thrown like Detroit and Salton.Effective methods employed in the East involve the exertion of natural controls that have the multiple advantages of permanence and environmental security. During the first decade or so of the beetle's introduction to the United States, the beetle developed rapidly as it lost the limiting factors that restrained its growth in its native homeland.But by 1945, the beetle had become a pest of minor importance in most of the areas where it had spread.This is largely the result of parasites imported from the Far East and the effects of diseases that make the beetle's organism fatal. Between 1920 and 1933, after extensive and painstaking investigations of the Japanese beetle's birthplaces, 34 species of predatory and parasitic insects were imported from Eastern countries in hopes of establishing natural control of the Japanese beetle.Five of these species have established themselves in the eastern United States.The most effective and widespread is a parasitic wasp from North Korea and China.When a female wasp finds a beetle larva in the soil, it injects the larva with a paralyzing fluid and simultaneously lays an egg under the maggot's cuticle.The wasp egg hatches into a larva, which feeds on the paralyzed beetle larva and eats it up.Over a period of about 25 years, the colonies were introduced to 14 eastern states under a joint program of state and federal agencies.Wasps are widely established in this area and are generally trusted by entomologists because of their important role in controlling beetles. A more important role was played by a bacterial disease that affects the family of beetles to which the Japanese beetle belongs—the scarabs.This is a very special bacterium - it doesn't attack other types of insects and is harmless to earthworms, warm-blooded animals and plants.The spores of this disease are found in the soil.When the spores are ingested by foraging beetle larvae, they multiply prodigiously in the blood of the larvae, causing the maggots to turn a distorted white color, hence the colloquial name "milk disease". Milk disease was discovered in New Jersey in 1933, and by 1938 the disease had spread to Japanese beetle breeding territories.In 1939, a control program was initiated to encourage the disease to spread more rapidly.An artificial method of increasing the rate of growth of this disease-causing bacterium has not yet been found, but a satisfactory substitute has been found; the bacteria-infected maggots are ground, dried, and mixed with white earth.According to the standard, one gram of soil should contain 100 million spores.Between 1939 and 1953, approximately 94,000 acres in 14 eastern states were disposed of under federal-state cooperative programs; other areas of the Commonwealth were also disposed of; other, less well-known, vast areas were also disposed of by private organizations or individuals have dealt with it.By 1945, milk sickness spores were endemic among beetles in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland.In some experimental areas, up to 94% of the maggots were infected.This diffusion work was discontinued in 1953 as a government undertaking and it was taken up as a production by a private laboratory which continued to supply individuals, park clubs, resident associations, and others in need of beetle control. Eastern regions where this program once operated are now reassured by a high degree of natural control of the beetle.The bacteria can survive in the soil for many years, so that they have established a permanent foothold here for their intended purpose, as the bacteria have increased in potency and continued to be disseminated by natural processes. Why, however, should these experiences, so impressive in the East, not be tried in Illinois and other Midwestern states, where the chemical warfare against the beetle is currently being fervently waged?We were told that inoculation with milk disease spores was "too expensive," yet no one in the 14 eastern states discovered this in the forties.And, by what calculation is this "too expensive" rating based?Obviously not in terms of the true cost of total devastation like that caused by Salton's spraying program.This review also fails to take into account the fact that inoculation with spores is done only once, and the first cost is the only cost. We have also been told that milk disease spores cannot be used in areas where the beetle is less widespread, as milk disease spores can only settle where there is already a significant presence of beetle larvae in the soil.This statement deserves a question mark, as do those pro-spraying statements.The bacterium that causes milk disease has been found to work against at least 40 other species of beetles.These beetles are widespread, and even in places where Japanese beetle populations are low or non-existent, it is entirely possible for the bacteria to transmit beetle diseases.And, because of the spores' ability to survive in soil for long periods of time, they can even persist in the complete absence of maggots, waiting for an opportunity to develop, as they do at the fringes of the beetle's current spread. Those who want immediate results at any cost will no doubt continue to use chemicals to exterminate the beetles.There are also those who gravitate to those brand-name products, who are willing to repeat the process and spend money so that the work of chemical insect control can last forever. On the other hand, those who are willing to wait a season or two for a satisfactory result will turn to milk disease; they will have a complete control of the beetle, but the control will not lose its effect over time. An extensive research program is underway at USDA laboratories in Boulia, Illinois, to find a way to artificially grow the milk disease bacterium.This will greatly reduce its cost and will facilitate its wider use.After several years of work, some results are now reported.When this "breakthrough" is fully realized, perhaps some sanity and foresight will enable us to better deal with the Japanese beetle, which has been the nightmare of Midwestern chemical control programs at their height. Something like the spraying of pesticides in eastern Illinois raises a moral question as well as a scientific one.The question is whether any civilization can wage a merciless war on life without destroying itself and without losing the dignity it deserves. These insecticides are not selective, that is, they do not kill only one particular species of insect that we wish to get rid of.Every pesticide is used for the simple reason that it is a lethal poison.It thus poisons all life that comes in contact with it: the lovely domesticated cat of some household, the cattle of the farmer, the rabbit in the field, and the skylark in flight.These creatures are not harmful to humans.In fact, it is the existence of these creatures and their companions that makes human life more colorful.And yet they were rewarded with sudden and gruesome deaths.The scientific observers at Salton described the symptoms of a dying lark: "It lay on its side, apparently having lost its muscular coordination, and could not fly or stand, but it kept beating its wings. , and retracted its claws tightly. It opened its mouth and breathed hard." What was even more pitiful was the silent situation of the dying field mouse, which "showed the characteristics of dying, with its back bent The clenched front paws are drawn back on the chest... Its head and neck are stretched out, and its mouth often contains dirty things, making people imagine how this dying little animal once gnawed on the ground." Which of us as human beings has not degraded our humanity by tacitly acquiescing to such detrimental actions against living beings?