This web page is intended to show that the widespread use of insecticides is a waste of money and an ineffective means of controlling insect pests in the long run.  In addition, the web page will propose a more effective alternative to widespread insecticide use that has received considerable attention in recent years.  This alternative is known as Integrated Pest Management (IPM).

Introduction

        The problems created by widespread insecticide use can be most effectively summarized with a cyclical diagram known as the insecticide treadmill (see above).

        For much of the past 50 years, the chemical industry has invested a great deal of money in the development of novel insecticides.  These investments have resulted in the development of numerous potent insecticides such as chlorinated hydrocarbons, organophosphates, carbamates, synthetic pyrethroids, and most recently, transgenic plants.  Immediately following the development of these insecticides, farmers and health officials have diverted large sums of money toward the application of the insecticides to crops and pathogen vectors (step 2).  In most cases, the insecticides have achieved their desired effects, but simultaneously created a variety of costly heath and environmental problems (step 3 and 4).  Furthermore, the insects that the compounds were designed to control eventually developed resistance and thereby rendered the compound useless (step 5).  Thus, the research branches of major chemical companies are once again pressured to develop a novel insecticide, which can potentially reenter the treadmill (step 6).

To more adequately describe the futility of irreverent insecticide application, two specific examples of passage through the insecticide treadmill will be provided.  The first example will revolve around the chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticide DDT and the second example will involve the more recently developed transgenic plants.