The Ddt Research Paper

In 1954, the entire campus of Michigan State University and nearby cities were sprayed with DDT and other pesticides to protect the elms from Dutch Elm Diseases. Dr Wallace, by chance, was supervising a research on robin population by John Mehner, a zoology graduate student who had started his Ph.D. They observed that the robins and other species of birds had become infertile, were dying or dead. Lincolnshire, an agrarian county at the East of England, reported an overwhelming 10000 birds dead due to the spraying. According to Carson, nature, in dealing with its inherent problems, provides “safeguards or policemen” as part of its inhabitants. Woodpeckers are the chief checkers of the Engelmann spruce beetle and could also protect apple orchards …show more content…
Millions of acres of forest and streams were sprayed with DDT. The effects were alarming- fishes of all kinds of species, mammals and birds which feeds on aquatic substances and other aquatic inhabitants were dead or dying. In no long a period, there was hunger strike – the rivers had become or are slowly becoming “Rivers of Death”. Realising the unintended consequences, there was an immediate reduction of the level of DDT used. The Mirimachi River, which was part of the 1954 spraying program, was not destroyed as the spraying was done once. In streams where spraying was done persistently and massively, salmon and many other species of fishes were near-extinction. Carson observed after a survey had proved that the dead fishes had DDT in their tissues, that there are more effective means of checking the overpopulation of forest insect other than spraying. She pointed out that natural parasitism, the method of introducing an enemy insect of the targeted insect into the forest, could be employed. The introduction of harmful chemicals to solve a problem is in itself a problem, thus, we should invest in researches to come out with better and harmless solutions, she