DDT spray scares mosquitoes away, study finds

Reuters ^ | August 8, 2007

[period end of story]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mosquitoes that carry malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever avoid homes that have been sprayed with DDT, researchers reported on Wednesday.

The chemical not only repels the disease-carrying insects physically, but its irritant and toxic properties helps keep them away, the researchers reported in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE.

They estimate that DDT spray reduced the risk of disease transmission by nearly three-quarters.

Malaria affects more 40 percent of the world's population, killing more than a million people every year, most of them young children.

DDT use has been discontinued in most countries because of fears the pesticide may cause cancer and because of its potential effects on animals such as birds.

But the World Health Organization last year recommended the use of DDT in places like Africa where malaria is still common, saying the benefits outweighed the risks.

In the study, Dr. Donald Roberts of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland and colleagues tested DDT against Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Thailand.

This species of mosquito does not carry malaria but it can transmit dengue and yellow fever.

[Trailerpark Badass]

What a breakthrough! Isn’t modern science wonderful?

[sr4402]

Interesting that Reuters did not have environmentalism trump over human health this time. DDT has been the bugaboo for environmentalism for years, what changed?

[Hang'emAll]

Garlic Oil mixed with water from a garden sprayer kills and scares mosquitoes too.

It’s also probably easier on the kids and dogs.

http://www.mosquitobarrier.com/

[Bean Counter]

It;s absolutely true!! We haven’t seen a mosquito here since Grampa died, and I inherited that drum of DDT he kept hoarded away in his shop for years...

[kinoxi]

The bird populations (specifically eagles and raptors) it was said to have affected have come back in this country. It has also been out of widespread use for so long that DDT resistant strains of mosquitoes don’t exist where it is needed most. They’ll probably end up using it in a rotating schedule with other pesticides.

[Badeye]

I started using Malthion (spelling) this spring. Works great, and once it dries no effects on dogs or cats.

Best spring and summer - bug wise - we’ve experienced to date at our home.

[coloradan]

DDT was said to reduce the raptor population, but it didn’t, so the story was changed that it reduced the egg count, but it didn’t, so the story was changed that the shells were thinned. That story too has since been retracted, but the institutional memory of DDT doing “something bad to birds” has remained for decades, at the cost of many many millions of lives. People should be tried for genocide and crimes against humanity for the knee-jerk ban in the face of changing rationales and no evidence, but they won’t be.

[Adder]

“Mosquitoes that carry malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever avoid homes that have been sprayed with DDT, researchers reported on Wednesday.”

Thats a real gns [gee no sh*t] moment. Ranks right up there with “the sun rises in the east...again!”
Ain’t science wunnerful.

[ElectricStrawberry]

DDT use has been discontinued in most countries because of fears the pesticide may cause cancer and because of its potential effects on animals such as birds.

BS. DDT was "banned" by the world community by witholding humanitarian aid $$$$ to 3rd world countries if the countries used DDT.

[HoosierHawk]

And Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

[econjack]

To combat DDT’s discontinuance, I started drinking gin and tonics decades ago and have not had malaria once.

[tarheelswamprat]

Well said.

[kinoxi]

I haven't read anything close to definitive saying it didn’t harm the birds higher up the foodchain. It’s half-life (including DDD and DDE) is measured in years so it makes perfect sense that the concentration would occur. Birds are notoriously susceptible to certain things as well (canary in a coal mine). If you’ve got a link I would like to read it.

[Delacon]

Here is a good even handed article.

http://www.reason.com/news/show/34742.html

[coloradan]

http://www.aim.org/aim_report/450_0_4_0_C/

[xjcsa]

Mosquitoes that carry malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever avoid homes that have been sprayed with DDT, researchers reported on Wednesday.

Mosquitos that carry no diseases were unaffected?

[P-40]

DDT has been the bugaboo for environmentalism for years, what changed?

I guess the environmentalists have been too busy with global warming and all the malaria it is supposed to be spreading.

DDT is just like any other pesticide. Use it properly, and there won't be any problems. Now how many people will use it, or fertilizer for that matter, properly is a whole different matter.

[kinoxi]

Thanks for the link. That’s about what I had assumed the effect was. I don’t think the stuff should be banned, it’s too effective. It just seems that a rotating regimen with other pesticides would eliminate most reasonable objection to it’s use. Giving the metabolites enough time to degrade and reducing the instances of resistant strains.

[kinoxi]

Thanks for the link. It’s going to be used in a widespread fashion again regardless. It will save too many lives to ignore.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

This effect has been known since DDT has been developed for use. Did some scientific group actually use grant money to re-confirm that DDT works as intended?

This isn’t really “news” so why would it be offered by Reuters now.

[Wonder Warthog]

What you have to remember is that DDT was GROSSLY overused, mostly by government. One instance was the attempt to halt the spread of the fire ant across the southeast in the 1950's. When I was in grade school, the gov't dropped multi-ton quantities of corn meal bait saturated with DDT from airplanes across essentially the entire state of Louisiana. After one pass, looking on the sidewalk, you could see the grains of meal with an approximate distance between grains of about two inches.

I suspect the total environmental consequences were somewhat severe (but note that nobody noticed any at the time). The fire ants certainly didn't, as they continued their march to the east coast.

Should DDT usage have been regulated?? Yes. Should DDT usage have been banned? NO.

[DakotaGator]

But the World Health Organization last year recommended the use of DDT in places like Africa where malaria is still common, saying the benefits outweighed the risks.

This is how the ignorant left justifies its idiocy to itself. Instead of just admitting they were wrong, the left needs to cast itself as noble world-saviors deigning to "allow" savage Africa to use DDT for the greater good.

The left's arrogance is only matched by its ignorance.

[kinoxi]

Should DDT usage have been regulated?? Yes. Should DDT usage have been banned? NO.

I couldn't agree more.

[coloradan]

Irrespective of future use, I’d like to see genocide charges against those responsible for its past non-use. But, I probably won’t. Hitler and Stalin combined didn’t kill as many people as Rachel Carson and her minions did.

[stormer]

“DDT was said to reduce the raptor population, but it didn’t, so the story was changed that it reduced the egg count, but it didn’t, so the story was changed that the shells were thinned.”

This is incorrect. Research shows that DDT/DDE and other chlorinated hydrocarbons are responsible for eggshell thinning and increased mortality. Not only does this affect birds serving a vital ecosystem role, it removes beneficial micro- and macroinvertibrates. The problem, however, is not the application of those chemicals, the problem is their spatial, temporal, and volumetric overuse.

[coloradan]

Maybe they simply weren’t looked at, because human lives aren’t in the balance. (Although West Nile virus kills people too, and that might be carried yet another kind of mosquito worth looking at.)

[bboop]

I wouldn’t think it would be terribly effective in ALL of Africa. Where kids are dying of malaria, which can be easily stopped.

[TexGuy]

Not being an expert on the inner-workings of the mind of a mosquito and how it interacts with DDT, I wonder how DDT scares the mosquito?

[bboop]

Is that so? Very very bad. I believe there is a reversal coming — first the National Geographic has a pro-DDT article this month, now Reuters? Amazing. About time.

[stormer]

“Ain’t science wunnerful.:

I think you’re missing the point. What the study indicates is that because mosquitoes avoid areas treated with DDT, you can reduce human/mosquito interaction by using smaller (and therefore less environmentally damaging) quantities; rather than flooding an entire region, selective applications can be made, limited to areas where people reside. Mosquitoes are not here only to sicken and torment man, they play a valuable role in ecosystem maintenance.

[MortMan]

The chemical not only repels the disease-carrying insects physically, but its irritant and toxic properties helps keep them away, the researchers reported in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE.

From Dictionary.com: repel - to drive or force back.

Ummmm... Did the author fail to understand the word "repel". Irritant and toxic properties would certainly "drive or force back" the mosquitos physically. Perhaps a course in third-grade English for Mr./Ms. Reuter-writer is in order?

Or, for the researchers if the author of the article quoted the journal accurately?

[3niner]

It’s also probably easier on the kids and dogs.

Unlike many other insecticides, DDT is not toxic to mammels (or birds, for that matter).

[B4Ranch]

You were supposed to surrender that drum to Monsato years ago!

[Adder]

“they play a valuable role in ecosystem maintenance.”

In all seriousness, what exactly do they do that is unique?

[3niner]

The bird populations (specifically eagles and raptors) it was said to have affected have come back in this country.

The raptor populations were not reduced by DDT. (Eagles are raptors, by the way.) It was overhunting by man, and inflexible behavior patterns, which made it harder for them to survive and reproduce, as humans impacted their environment.

The hunting has been mostly stopped, and the bird populations were reduced mostly to individuals that were more flexible about living with human development. The surviving birds produced many offspring, and the new, larger populations are better adapted to living in a human dominated environment.

[MrB]

Malaria affects more 40 percent of the world's population, killing more than a million people every year, most of them young children.

By almost any logic, including leftist "logic", those who advocated banning of DDT are responsible for the deaths of millions of children worldwide.

[kinoxi]

I wasn’t implying causation. Just pointing out that part of the ‘rationale’ behind the initial ban is no longer valid.

[dfwgator]

Rachel Carson is deeply saddened.

[3niner]

In all seriousness, what exactly do they do that is unique?

It is not "unique", but a large percentage of flowers are pollinated by mosquitoes. Mosquitoes do not live by sucking blood, only female mosquitoes do this, in order to get a quick protein boost they need for producing eggs. There are many species of mosquitoes, and most do not "bite" humans.

[Hot Tabasco]

DDT, researchers reported on Wednesday.

I think the researchers did a "cut and paste" job from a '60's study........and they get paid for their brilliance.

[Hot Tabasco]

100 things you should know about DDT

[stormer]

Important component in the food web; bats and birds feeding on adults, and fish and aquatic macroinvertibrates preying on larvae. Those critters in turn perform other functions as prey, pollinators, seed dispersal, etc. - it can get complicated very quickly.

[stormer]

The author of your link is, at best, a bit of a kook.

[JasonC]

They are getting bad enough press over it, since it reveals that their actual desire is for the human race to drop dead. Having a PR problem, they spin slightly. But only slightly - the Rachel Carson high schools will not be renamed, even though they are as obscene as naming high schools after Hitler.

[JasonC]

There is nothing on that page that remotely suggests so. It is all perfectly cogent and factual. The crusade against DDT is highly relevant as an example of environmentalists throwing out science for superstitious nonsense, with an unstated and quite horrible ulterior motive. Which is going on still, on other subjects.

[stormer]

Studies that show the relationship between bird mortality and DDT/DDE ingestion are not “superstitious nonsense”, they are strong evidence that was ignored by Edwards. As far as an “unstated and quite horrible ulterior motive”, do you seriously suggest that someone actually said “Rather dead than alive and riotously reproducing” in the context of a discussion on DDT?

[xjcsa]

Maybe they simply weren’t looked at, because human lives aren’t in the balance.

That would make sense, but I think it's actually just a case of sloppy writing.