Pesticide Propaganda
Pesticides get a bad wrap these days between activists, 3 letter government agencies, and low information people that never read the article, forming opinions based of clickbait headlines. Most issues with pesticide use is not the pest control industry, it’s people buying something at the store or online, not reading the label and spraying it everywhere. And none of those people have any training or knowledge. A very small portion of pesticides used are from the pest control industry. Pesticides aren’t the problem, people are the problem.
“If pesticides were abolished, the lives saved would be outnumbered by a factor of around 1000 by the lives lost due to poorer diets. Secondary penalties would be massive environmental damage due to the land needs of less productive farming, and a financial cost of around 20 billion US Dollars”.
Bjorn Lomborg – The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World (2001)
Crops and Pesticides
Pesticides help farmers grow more food on less land. Less land used for food production reduces wildlife habitats that would otherwise be taken for crops. Food production has tripled since 1960 thanks to the use of pesticides protecting crops. Rice has doubled and wheat has increased almost 160%. Food crops compete with weeds to grow resulting in a 26-40% loss annually due to pests, and disease. Without the use of pesticides, that loss would skyrocket. Even “organic” farmers use pesticides. They may use more natural pesticides than synthetic but they still understand the necessity.
Pesticide Perspectives
That leads well into the question of “What is a pesticide?” A pesticide is anything that prevents, repels, kills or mitigates a pest. OK, what is a pest? A pest can generally be defined as any animal, plant, or other organism whose biology, behavior, or location places it in direct conflict with humans. Some insects threaten human health, destroy food, damage structures or landscapes, or cause general annoyance or anxiety. So a pesticide is not necessarily a big scary chemical. My boot is a pesticide. So is water. Cleaning the kitchen is technically a pesticide. Pesticides should not have such a scary connotation.
Pesticides Protect Us from Danger
How many of you would be happy living in a house full of cockroaches, fleas or bed bugs? Not many I would say. Insect and animal pests bring diseases and danger. Do you want a hornets nest in your shower? Again, I say nay.
Mosquitos are the number one killing creature on the planet. Malaria continues to be a leading cause of preventable illness and death in the world, resulting in nearly 249 million cases and 608,000 deaths across 85 countries in 2022. Nearly 3.2 billion people are at risk of this preventable disease. The list of other diseases spread by mosquitos is extensive. Without efforts around the world utilizing pesticides there would be a lot more death, pain, and suffering from mosquitos alone.
Stings from wasps, hornets, ants, and scorpions are painful and sometimes fatal. Removing these pests from human spaces is very important The tools and pesticides used to accomplish this protect our health and safety. Who likes to get stung?
25 million people perished in the 1300s due to the Black Death or Bubonic Plague. This occurred due to a combination of rats, fleas, lice, and poor sanitation practices. Actually, the poor sanitation could be argued is what exacerbated the rats, fleas, and lice. Pesticides could have saved soo many people but IPM could have done even more. IPM is Integrated Pest Management. Pesticides aren’t the only way to prevent pests. Part of IPM is altering the environment of an area to make it less inviting for pests. For instance, if you clean up your house and take the trash out, you are less likely to have pest problems. Things that cause pests are called Conducive Conditions. Pest control professionals help customers identify these conducive conditions. This reduces our use of pesticides and deals with the real cause of the problem. IPM is part of what we do.
Pesticides Protect Our Homes
Termites cause $40 Billion in damage worldwide annually. I bet you will be happy to utilize some pesticides to protect your most expensive investment, your home. The winter is going to be pretty harsh without that wall to protect you from the snow. Not to mention the cost of replacing large chunks of your home to termite damage. Pesticides could have prevented that.
Landscaping troubles may not be as threatening to your health and well-being as the other pests but most people like trees, grass and flowers. Nice landscaping raises property value and provides us nice outdoor spaces to enjoy. Without pesticides, plants can get diseases or get choked out by invasive species.
Pesticides Protect The Environment
We are constantly dealing with invasive species of pests and plants that hitchhike via world wide shipping. These pests get transported to new environments where they may not have any natural predators. This causes them to survive in a place that they were not supposed to be in. There are many examples of this every year and pesticides help keep them at bay. Without them, each of the worlds diverse environments would be in danger from organisms that were no danger in their intended habitat. Pesticides to the rescue again.
Pesticides Can Be Misused
Of course the misuse of anything, including pesticides can have negative effects. There are laws and regulation to mitigate this danger. And remember, most of that misuse comes from your average human with no training, not the professionals who work with pesticides everyday. When you weigh the benefits that pesticides afford to all of us, it’s a no brainer. Go team pesticide.
Thank you to the guest author
Diederik Visser
True Clean Pest Control
23 Esseln Circuit, Sydenham,
Gqeberha/PortElizabeth.
https://pestcontrol.trueclean.co.za
https://www.youtube.com/@trueclean1
(865) 455-8571
#whatbugsme
