DDT almost had malaria eradicated when Rachael Carson published her book, “Silent Spring”, using falsified and incorrect data stating that DDT had a myriad of bad effects. Had it not been banned worldwide malaria would be a post script in epidemiological studies.
There is a health risk to DDT, not least because it’s chemically very stable and doesn’t break down for probably centuries. Its use knocked down malaria pretty hard here and there, but as with all things with instructions for use, lack of reading comprehension (and illiteracy, and if a little is good..., and who-cares attitudes) it wasn’t necessarily used effectively.
Malaria, OTOH, is hardly harmful at all... /sarc
I keep seeing ads on YouTube for a simple method of mosquito eradication, it appears to use lemons cut in half.
That’ll be a good way to gather insect protein for our Soylent Green future.