DDT

In short, if anyone is a Hitler or Genghis Khan it's the makers of DDT.

DDT was made by a chemist who recd the Nobel Prize. He thought he was doing a great thing by coming up with a synthetic insecticide to replace lead arsenate salts. We still have many farm areas where the soil is tainted with lead arsenate that was spread in the 1920's.
Mueller didnt realize his discovery would have consequences , the discovery of which predated Rachel Carsons's book by 4 years. Gunga likes scapegoats that are easily understood as "bad guys".
If we lived back in the 1940's when DDT was first created in the lab and was found to be a miracle pesticide, we would probably be singing its praises to ag and itw ability to help stop the spread of malaria and Chaga's. We didnt know better , and when Carson made the connection in her book, she discussed the immunity that insects acquired (All she was criticized for was when she called attention to the damage to wildlife , mostly birds). The deniers denied that bugs acquired immunity to chemicals.

The batted ball that the ignorant scapegoaters were using involved denying that resistance even existed(along with evolution) . The discovery of the conferred resistance really came to maturity in the 1980's and was, like all science, a subject of debate for another 2 decades until the actual genetic targets and now the processes of how resistance , as an adaptation, got conferred . Now we seem to be stuck with the knowlwdge that all resistance may confer no " negative cost" to the resistant critters.
It appears we gotta be working on a plan B or we will have more and more "Superbugs" , both insects and microbes.

Rachel Carson , as an target for ridicule, has been a popular scapegoat among the uneducated of the world.
As HL Mencken said,

"for every problem, there is an answer that is simple, easily understood, and dead wrong"

I think in those times, the motives were good, rather than just money as a goal, the way it is now with Roundup.

bingo. "Roundup Resistance " is actually part of the marketing, and its failing more and more each crop season.

We really believe the old Dupont jingle "Better things for better living through chemistry"

Gungasnake, somebody told me that Carson herself used to visit malaria-infested countries and rip mosquito nets off the beds of sleeping children.

There are better ways to get rid of mosquitoes now. Gene Drives are here and the earth’s biosphere is about to change.

Except that, as the junkscience.com faq notes, use of DDT CONTINUES to be effective in nations which have made the most heavy use of it. Mosquitos continue to avoid the stuff even if it doesn't kill them and the economics of DDT are such that no other solution has ever come close. It needs to remain part of mankind's arsenal until we find a way to exterminate the creatures of Pandora's box altogether.

Ive read some stuff from junk science and yes, junk science.com seems to be junk science.
The genetics of resistance to many organochlorine pesticides(not just DDT) is not a debate any longer.
You and Milloy may wish to deny that but dont try to blow smoke up our asses and call it "science"

Chalk up another kill for Rachel Carson as of last night, my buddy Henry's poor dog... Henry lives close to the river and was staying with me along with his dog for a month and a half after the hurricane and for a month or two after the hurricane there were large numbers of mosquitoes around the river and the low areas where he lives. Apparently Bo, the dog, got bitten after they moved back. All it would have taken would have been to spray an area of two acres and Bo would be alive today.

Don't mistake Malthusianism for science nor have questions as to the motives of the pig fuckers who banned DDT and don't have any illusions about mutations being good for mosquitoes or anything else. A mosquito which has mutated is that much more susceptible to the next pesticide it encounters although, as the article indicates, DDT remains effective even in the areas in which it is used most heavily.

http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/wew/articles/04/policy.html

http://21sci-tech.com/Subscriptions/Spring-2010_ONLINE/Malthusian_War_DDT.pdf

http://www.cfact.org/2013/08/11/ddt-ban-linked-to-population-control/

somehow I dont look to Walter Williams as an expert on genetic adaptation or biochemistry. Hes an economics teacher and a frequent guest in right wing radio and TV


Total head up ones ass Bullshit. AS genetics has taught us , when the mosquitos are conferred some adaptive resistance to DDT, they are also resistent to ALL organochlorine pesticides and a flexibility in the genome to adapt to other classes of sprays.

Aedes aegyptae , a malarial species and yellow fever species)is singularly responsible for the spread of Zika ( and microcephaly in babies) in Brazil and dengue fever. It has shown microevolution that has conferred resistance and immunity to dieldrin an DDT. It tutns out that there are several sub species of the mosquito that have reacted uniquely to pesticides. The West frican strain is much slower to develop resistance and so DDT can be used (but very carefully because the ultimate result i still evolution via a SNP or , is some cases, a "chemically acquired" epigenetic resistance which, for that subspecies, doesnt return to a ground state for 30 or 40 years. If, the resistance gets placed in a gene sequence in chromosome 2, it seems to become a permanent fixture. THAT seems to be the problem in Brazil, SE Asia and India (my conclusion , not published research--since published works need to work up to that conclusion by virtue of several more studies). As we know now, Zika and infant microcephaly is a huge and growing problem in S America (mostly Brazil).

It appears, knowing the cladistics, that DDT does have some usefulness in several places in west Africa where the microevolution is slower for the subspecies of mosquitoe there. Apparently, knowing this, WHO is providing DDT accompanying several other pesticides for malarial control within dwelling spaces, but are monitoring acquired resistance to organochlorine pesticides.

Anopheles mosquitoes, with 450 species, 40 of which carry the microscopic malaria organism , all reproduce rather quickly and develop pesticide resistance by microevolution of the SNP loci LI19F which is on the GsTe2 gene of chromosome 2. (Theyve got it mapped pretty well). Because these guys reproduce maybe 30% faster than the Aedes species, develop resistance and immunity within less than 2 years. SO the use of sterile males is being used in studies that target the malaria carriers but not affecting the pollenator species. (Is it even posible??) Since Anopheles only mate once in their breeding life and go through sveral dozen egg laying events, it is thought that control via breeding them out may be an effective control.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for development of new techniques with the ultimate goal of eliminating the creatures of Pandora's box from the planet altogether and I don't mean just mosquitoes; I mean mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, bedbugs, chiggers, lice, every sort of stinging thing with the exception of non-Africanized honey bees, every kind of dangerous spider and everything else like that.

But until we achieve that point, DDT should return to its status as the people's remedy. Nobody is talking about spraying the stuff over hill and dale and all over creation willy nilly at this point, all anybody is asking for is protection of human habitats. One acre's worth of spraying and my buddy's poor dog would be alive.

disagree. Genetics has proven Rachel Carson right in everything she said. As I said before, youre just scapegoating for something about which you have little understnding . eve got entie species of Aedes and ANpheles that are immune to DDT and Dieldrin . Spraying willy nilly will just make more immune species in a critter that breeds faster than rats.

Your friends dog died of hertworm right? I dont wnna be a total boreass but why didnt he take the dog for treatment when it ws in its early stages , or invest in a yearly IMMUNITY SHOTS, in his yerly wellness goin over ??

Dogs just cant be kept in kennels outdoors in the north or south without immunity programs.

For sure a dog has to have its shots and or pills to live very long these days.

heartworm Difilaria immitis, has been known since it was first discovered in 1586 in horses. In the US , its been known since the mid 1800's . The treatments available now are effective but expensive. Immunity by Ivermectin chewables or a 6 month shot, cost about 70 $ a year when bundled with other immunity meds from your vet.

SO, blaming Rachel Carson or the "Non-use of DDT" to kill mosquitoes carrying the microfilaria is not really too valid an argument . I dont know, maybe blaming GovMint for everything is what you Texans are best at.
Your buddy should have known that
1. His dog could easily be given a shot or a monthly "chewy" that would confer 100% immunity , but

2. Once the dog is bitten by an infected mosquito and the disease develops, its gonna cost about 1K$ per year. It all depends how much he loved his dog. Sounds like he did neither. Im sorry for the dog to have been saddled with an irresponsible caregiver.

I'm not talking about wealthy people here...

Other than that, I simply do not buy your claim of this **** being settled science, nor do many experts nor do nations which are insisting upon their right to have and use DDT again.

PARTICULARLY with a history of Malthusian thinking being involved in banning the stuff originally, I don't trust the claims you're trying to make.

when I worked in frica I saw that many folks in Nigeria were actually given the insecticide coated netting n the costs were absorbed by many agencies and NGO's. (I think the Gates Foundation today is uite active in such stuff).
However facts are still facts in acquired immunity, whether you believe em or not.
Also, prevention of heartworm is effective and cheap. Treatment is, at best , a way to extend a dog's life but needs to be caught early to be fully effective.

Never asked for your trust. I just want to present some facts.

Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring was published over 10 years before DDT was finally banned in Europe and U. It actually took that long to see that she was right . It was (and is) still in use in Qest Africa where acquired DDt immunity is slowest(mostly because of the species involved).

Aside from everything else you're assuming that all mosquitoes in the US have the same genetic makeup. If any mosquitoes in the US ever did acquire resistence, it would have occurred mainly on farms and other areas which were very heavily treated. Most people don't live on farms.