...The single most effective way to kill mosquitos and to reduce the incidence of malaria is DDT.... Although it's recently become popular to say so, the truth is not so simple. DDT IS an inexpensive way to control mosquitoes, and so is seen as an attractive way to deal with a problem that tends to be found in poor countries. It is effective, largely because it and its relatives (the chlorinated hydrocarbons, such as endrin and dieldrin) has not been used much in the last quarter century, so resistance to DDT in mosquito populations has dropped off. Employ it on a large scale and mosquitoes would soon become resistant...just as they and many other insects did the first time around. "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."- George Santayana
Slashdot Mirror
...The single most effective way to kill mosquitos and to reduce the incidence of malaria is DDT....
Although it's recently become popular to say so, the truth is not so simple. DDT IS an inexpensive way to control mosquitoes, and so is seen as an attractive way to deal with a problem that tends to be found in poor countries. It is effective, largely because it and its relatives (the chlorinated hydrocarbons, such as endrin and dieldrin) has not been used much in the last quarter century, so resistance to DDT in mosquito populations has dropped off. Employ it on a large scale and mosquitoes would soon become resistant...just as they and many other insects did the first time around.
"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."- George Santayana