DDT & Lyme disease

[coffeeman]

Thinking about Lyme disease. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, as I read, was written on junk science. Have a good friend who was infected with Lyme 10 yrs ago. Hurt him bad. So DDT came up lately and I concluded back in the 60s or even 70s I don't remember Lyme? Among other things DDT killed, I'm thinking, if we still used DDT on regular basis Lyme disease
wouldn't be a big worry today. The ticks would be mostly dead. Of course, one always has to be vigilant.

Checking with the "GROUP". Just wonder how on track I am???

Cheers...........Coffeeman

 

[rekees4300]

Checking with the "GROUP". Just wonder how on track I am???

Ticks would not be dead but many bird species would be. Then there would have been millions of cases of human cancer. Yeah that good old DDT was great stuff!

 

[Firemanbuck82]

Thinking about Lyme disease. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, as I read, was written on junk science. Have a good friend who was infected with Lyme 10 yrs ago. Hurt him bad. So DDT came up lately and I concluded back in the 60s or even 70s I don't remember Lyme? Among other things DDT killed, I'm thinking, if we still used DDT on regular basis Lyme disease
wouldn't be a big worry today. The ticks would be mostly dead. Of course, one always has to be vigilant.

Checking with the "GROUP". Just wonder how on track I am???

Cheers...........Coffeeman

Well, I'd say you're off track.

From an article in the Oregonian newspaper...

"Carson didn't simply fabricate stories about the environmental damage DDT and related chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides were doing to the environment; she wrote her book based on information from several hundred referenced, published sources, most of which were from the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Thanks to the red flags Carson raised and further scientific research, the use of DDT was banned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after 1972. DDT had been implicated in eggshell thinning in bald eagles and, coincidence or not, after the ban, bald eagle populations began to rebuild and today are very healthy."

DDT and its breakdown products are extremely persistent in the environment. I recently tested soils in a residential area in Seattle that contained DDT, its breakdown products and other pesticides at concentrations well above levels which are carcinogenic to humans, 40 years after the last application. The soil had to be excavated and hauled away as dangerous waste. DDT is extremely effective as a pesticide but the wide ranging effects on other species and its persistence in the environment make it similar to using a shotgun to kill a mosquito. Sure the mosquito dies, but the blast will also damage other things.

Humans, as the dominant driving environmental force on this planet, seem to have this weird ability to deny that their actions have any effect on the world around them. "The DDT ban was "junk science", "global warming is a hoax", "The ocean's a big place and full of unlimited fish". At some point, we need to realize that our existence is directly linked to the world around us.

*steps off soapbox*

 

[gsganzer]

I've seen a number of discussions about bringing back selective use of DDT for mosquito control, especially in the fight against malaria. It definitely poses some risks, but like most things, the problem wasn't so much with the product, but the unregulated over application of it. Apparently it's incredibly effective for mosquito control.

Lyme disease is transmitted by deer ticks, so not sure if it's any use in it's control. Zika, malaria, dengue fever and a few others that have a mosquito vector might be candidates.

 

[Snobdds]

The effects on humans seem to be superficial...

 

[Firemanbuck82]

The effects on humans seem to be superficial...

Just because it didn't kill them outright when they were exposed, doesn't mean there were no effects. Acute toxicity =/= chronic toxicity

 

[rekees4300]

At some point, we need to realize that our existence is directly linked to the world around us.

Sage words indeed. We may have already reached the tipping point. :earth:

 

[tjkubota93]

Seems like they could find something else to fog with that would kill pest bugs. I know the county fogs here, with what I don't know.

 

[smstonypoint]

Seems like they could find something else to fog with that would kill pest bugs. I know the county fogs here, with what I don't know.

My guess would be malathion.

Steve

 

[teg]

....The ticks would be mostly dead...

So my take is that mother nature usually wins and if we continued to use DDT to control ticks... we would most likely only kill off the susceptible ticks and leave resistant ticks to breed super ticks that could drink DDT and have no effects. :2cents: Kind of like we have done with Bed Bugs...

 

[CalG]

The effects on humans seem to be superficial...

Hey! I think that might be a picture of me as a kid.


Ahh,,, that explains a lot..... who do I sue?

 

[Spindifferent]

So my take is that mother nature usually wins and if we continued to use DDT to control ticks... we would most likely only kill off the susceptible ticks and leave resistant ticks to breed super ticks that could drink DDT and have no effects. :2cents: Kind of like we have done with Bed Bugs...

... and Palmer Amaranth...

 

[gwstang]

What I want to know is....who is the fellow they get to hold down the deer to dust with the DDT? :laughing:

I still remember as a kid that we always had a canister of that stuff around. It would do a number on the fire ant beds. I think if it had been used for just home consumer usage and not agriculture....it would have been ok for the environment. This stuff for the fire ants now days does not do squat. They just move over a few feet and make another mound. I hate the **** things. I hear they have adapted to the cold ground in the north. Fire ants are of the devil.

Seriously, it has been really wet down here and the ticks are numerous. Those little seed ticks get on me if I go through the woods at all. About 15 years ago, my youngest son shot a buck, from the front porch (yeah, we live in the woods...he shot one off the back porch about a month later...lol) We walked down to the field where it was at and that thing was covered with ticks. It was very early in the hunting season (starts around Nov. 20th here) and still quite warm. I have never seen a deer with ticks until that day. It must have been in the hundreds, his belly was just covered in them. I took great precaution to use gloves and gutted and got the skin off quickly. Took that stuff way down in the woods for disposal. Looking back, I should have soaked it in diesel and burned it. I need to get some guinea to eat those ticks. Those birds are very noisy and the coyotes/bobkittens would probably get them anyway. I lock my chickens up at night. Would the guinea go in there with them to roost?

 

[motownbrowne]

Thinking about Lyme disease. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, as I read, was written on junk science.

Got a source to cite for this junk science claim??

 

[Baby Grand]

Got a source to cite for this junk science claim??

It was on the internet, so it must be true.
Sources schmorsses - just tell me what I want to hear.

 

[oosik]

Like it or not - many countries outside USA still use DDT for controlling mosquitos. Many countries that produce food that is imported into USA.

 

[dmccarty]

Hey! I think that might be a picture of me as a kid.


Ahh,,, that explains a lot..... who do I sue?

I might not be in that picture but I sure did that when the DDT truck came through our subdivision and I was not the only kid riding a bike in the cloud. :shocked::shocked::shocked: When I moved back to FLA, they were flying DC3's over the house spraying but I think that was Malathion. I did NOT go outside and stand under the cloud. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

The planes were certainly getting better coverage than the truck sprayers. If I remember right, the DC3's were spraying to kill a citrus pest, I don't think the spray was for squeeters.

Later,
Dan

 

[smstonypoint]

The planes were certainly getting better coverage than the truck sprayers. If I remember right, the DC3's were spraying to kill a citrus pest, I don't think the spray was for squeeters.

Later,
Dan

I don't know your age, but the spraying may have been for the Mediterranean fruit fly. I recall a major outbreak some years ago. An image that sticks in my mind is news coverage of the Florida Ag. Commissioner drinking a glass of malathion to prove its safety in the campaign against the fruit fly.

Steve

 

[dmccarty]

I don't know your age, but the spraying may have been for the Mediterranean fruit fly. I recall a major outbreak some years ago. An image that sticks in my mind is news coverage of the Florida Ag. Commissioner drinking a glass of Malathion to prove its safety in the campaign against the fruit fly.

Steve

That sounds very familiar. I do think it was the fruit fly and I remember the guy drinking the Malathion. :shocked:

Then there was a canker or some such that was killing citrus but I think that was after I left FLA. The state came into areas and cut down any tree that might be affected. The house my parents owned had a few, very productive citrus trees, but they got cut down. I hear that people are suing the state about this because the trees did not need to be cut down.

Later,
Dan

 

[teg]

Like it or not - many countries outside USA still use DDT for controlling mosquitos...

yea, and how is that working for them?

Anyone up for transgenic mosquitoes with a termination gene?