1 Relationship with pests changed 10,000YA Advent of agriculture - - PDF document

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1 Relationship with pests changed 10,000YA Advent of agriculture - - PDF document

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History of Pesticide Use 1 BIO 4101: Pesticides and the Environment BIO 4101: Pesticides and the Environment History of Pest Control Many pests plague humans: Rats, mice, cockroaches, termites, beetles, moths/caterpillars, ants, lice,

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BIO 4101: Pesticides and the Environment BIO 4101: Pesticides and the Environment

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History of Pesticide Use

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History of Pest Control

  • Many pests plague humans:

– Rats, mice, cockroaches, termites, beetles, moths/caterpillars, ants, lice, fleas, mosquitoes, spiders, mites, ticks, pigeons, raccoons, coyotes, deer, woodchucks, beavers, nematodes, fungi, weeds etc…

  • They compete for our food, eat our

clothes, homes, impact our health, transmit disease, disturb our dominance

  • ver nature or simply annoy us.

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Human ancestors had few problems

  • Didn’t grow and store

food, no permanent homes

  • Pest control involved

scratching, grooming, swatting and squashing

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Relationship with pests changed 10,000YA

  • Advent of agriculture
  • Increased human

density

  • Stocks of domestic

animals

  • Grain stores
  • Clothing fibres

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Pests in recorded history

  • Locust swarms in

Bible

– Added to list of kosher animals

  • Cave paintings in Tassili n’ Ajjer (Algeria)

show crop infestations

  • Egyptian papyrus documents also

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Early Pest Management Practices

  • Domain of witch doctors
  • Religious ceremonies and

superstition

  • Limited success
  • Greeks assigned Gods to the job

– Apollo: domain over mice and mildew – Hercules: domain over locusts and worms – Zeus: “flycatcher”

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Christianity

  • Employed divinity in pest

control up until 15th century

  • Pests tried in religious

court, found guilty, excommunicated and banished

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Not all “Hoodoo Voodoo”

  • Early non-chemical pest control often

based on actual ecological principles

– E.g. Romans drained swamps, built sewage systems, built baths – E.g. Homer (800 BC) recognized usefulness of burning fields to control locusts

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Geoponika

  • Greek agricultural encyclopedia
  • Listed insecticides including:

– Bay, asafetida, elder, cumin, hellebore, oak, squill, cedar, absinthe, pomegranate etc. – Modern chemists have since identified insecticidal chemicals from all of the above

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Human Preference for Insecticides as Food

  • Question of dosage
  • Herbs and spices
  • Alcoholic beverages
  • History of the world

– Route to the Orient

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Early Chemical Pesticides

  • Sumerians: elemental sulfur for insects and

mites (2500 BC)

  • Romans: added oil and used as insect repellent
  • Chinese: arsenic and mercury against body lice

– Earliest biological control using predatory ants against beetles and caterpillars in citrus orchards

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Little progress for ~1700 years

  • Ended with fall of Roman Empire

(~476AD)

  • Dark ages (475-1000AD)
  • Middle ages (1000-1700AD), dominated by

religion, not much critical thinking

  • Resurgence in interest in pest control by

18th century

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18th Century

  • Agriculture went from subsistence to

commercial (revolution)

  • Use of manure and other fertilizers
  • Expanded acreage
  • Row planting
  • Facilitated by use of machines

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Mid 1800s

  • Major pest problems in Europe

– Potato blight in Ireland, England and Belgium – Powdery mildew on grapes – Fungus leaf disease on coffee in Ceylon (forced switch to tea crops) – French wine industry threatened by grape phylloxera insect

  • Infestations caused by

– 1) Vast area of single food source – 2) Imperial colonization and trade spread pests around

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Concurrent Medical Discoveries

  • Diseases were vectored by

pests

– 1st demonstrated case: Texas Cattle Fever caused by parasite, transmitted by flies

  • Later discovered many

more:

– Tse tse flies and African Sleeping Sickness – Rat fleas and the plague – Mosquitoes and malaria

  • This knowledge stimulated

push for chemical pest control

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Origin of Today’s Chemical Pesticides

  • Can be traced to accidental observation

by French grape farmer

  • Sprayed perimeter of vineyard to repel

pests (humans)

– Noticed these plants resisted powdery mildew

  • Origin of Bordeaux Mixture (lime and

copper sulfate) still widely used fungicide

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First Phase of Chemical Pesticides

  • French grape farmers started using

copper aceto-arsenite against insects

  • Led to use of many other inorganic

compounds

– Arsenic, antimony, selenium, sulfur, thalium, zinc, copper

  • Full expansion of industry caused by

development of spray nozzle and airplane distribution

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Phase 2 of Chemical Pesticide Industry

  • Chemical warfare
  • Chlorine gas (Germany, 1915)
  • WWII full expansion of chemical weapons via

intense R&D

– Goal of lowering soldier mortality due to pest vectored disease – WWI soldiers plagued by fleas, ticks, bedbugs – Another interest was in anti-personnel chemicals – Most insecticides neurotoxins and invert/vert nervous systems essentially the same

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World War II

  • Both Axis and Allies developed and

tested hundreds of chemicals

  • Major breakthrough for USA with

discovery of chemical highly toxic at low doses

  • Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT)

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Post-war period

  • Chemicals abundant and cheap
  • Miracle cures to pest infestation
  • Second agricultural revolution
  • Emphasis switched from pest

management to eradication

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Resistance to Pesticides

  • Overuse of

pesticides led to escalation due to resistance

– 1948: 14 species – 1969: 224 – 1990: >500 insects

  • Also: diseases,

weeds

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Pollution Problems Seen in Wildlife

  • Bioaccumulation

and Bioamplification caused wildlife declines higher up the food chain

  • 1950-1960s

ppm

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Decline of Top Predators

  • Bald Eagle, Peregrine

Falcon

  • Egg-shell thinning

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Reintroduction Programs

  • Captive bred and

reintroduced to nature

  • US and Canadian

Wildlife service

  • 1970-1990s
  • Populations back to

normal

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Silent Spring: Rachel Carson (1962)

  • Awakened world to

slow poisoning by misuse of pesticides

  • “Everyone should have

the right to secure their

  • wn home against the

intrusion of poisons applied by other persons”

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Silent Spring: Rachel Carson (1962)

  • Linked humans to ecology
  • Human body is permeable

to toxins

  • Died in 1964 but not before

environmental movement was triggered

– DDT banned in N.Am. – Earth day – Establishment of EPA – Post-humous Presidential Medal of Honour (1981)

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Silent Spring: Rachel Carson (1962)

  • Not without opposition

from people who hadn’t read it

  • Globe-Times Newspaper

(Pennsylvania): “No one in either county farm office who was talked to today had read the book, but all disapproved of it heartily”

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Silent Spring: Rachel Carson (1962)

  • Opposition came for 2 reasons:
  • 1) fear of decreases in profits

for chemical industry, negatively affect economy

  • 2) differing views of role of

science in society

– An era of scientific backfiring (nuclear, thalidomide, DDT) – Double-edged sword: science can improve life and cause damage

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However, the killing goes on…

  • Agent Orange [2,4- dichloro-

phenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 2,4,5- trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T)]

  • Used as a defoliant in Vietnam
  • Released dioxins (carcinogen)
  • Canadian govt secretely

tested in Gagetown, NB in 1967

– Sprayed on Ontario roads in 80s

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Environmental Movement

  • 1970s: nukes and whales
  • 1980s: recycling paper
  • 1990s: CFCs and habitat conservation
  • 2000s: biodiversity, biotechnology and

climate

  • Market shift recently towards sustainably

produced food products (organic)

– Stimulated increase in IPM techniques

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However, Pesticides Still Widely Used

  • Data from USA, 1993

– 1.1 Billion lbs pesticide used (4 lbs/citizen) – 4.5 Billion lbs used worldwide

  • 5.2B in 2008 (40% herbicides)

– Pest industry worth $8.5 Billion annually – 860 active ingredients registered under Federal Pesticide Act – 26000 products manufactured by 1200 companies – Used on 900 000 farms and 69 Million homes

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32 USE OF PESTICIDES USE OF PESTICIDES

Global Pesticide Use 2001 (%) herbicide insecticide fungicide

  • ther

www.epa.gov/oppbead1/pestsales/01pestsales/market_estimates2001.pdf

Pamphlet OMS

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Next Class

  • The cost and economics of pesticides