--- Ronn!Blankenship <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snipped most> > Yes, it would indeed be nice if someone could find > an alternative which was > nearly (90%+?) as effective as DDT at killing the > insects which spread > disease to humans while being much safer (<10% as > toxic?) as DDT, and also > be cheap enough that the people living in some of > the areas where diseases > like malaria and yellow fever are endemic can afford > it.
There is also the possibility of gengineering mosquitoes (or was it a bacterium that enables the mosquito to be a host?) so that they can't vector the parasite - there were several posts on that last summer, IIRC. Of course, releasing a GM animal into the environment has its own hazards (the Law of Unintended Consequences!)...I think there was also something about how mosquito netting over children's beds would drastically reduce infection rates (b/c they feed at dawn/dusk?)... > FWIW, is it possible that much of the problem with > chemicals such as DDT > getting into the system where it is not wanted and > causes problems is due > to overuse, on the principle "if a little is good, a > lot is better"? Probably in some places; I think aerial application is fairly indiscriminant as well in many places. As the animals affected by DDT include frogs and other insectivore amphibians, as well as bats, there is reduction of the natural predators of mosquitos. Education re: not providing breeding grounds for the little blood-suckers is also important, as humans tend to create these without thinking. [What with West Nile here in force this past year, *every* news medium ran/played multiple articles on canging bird bath and pet water 2-3xweek, walking your property and picking up anything that could hold rainwater (buckets, cans, tires, etc.), checking your gutters for dips that would hold standing water, etc. At the stable we checked weekly for these.] Debbi who saw that bald eagle again yesterday by the resevoir; turns out a pair is wintering nearby -- a friend who's lived here for decades said that there was even a nesting pair there years ago! :) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now http://companion.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
