Best insecticide

[HeyBub]

Make your own DDT

Full instructions:

[Tegger]

"HeyBub" wrote in news:X9ednewVT_wd0XrWnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Cool. Now find me a recipe for 2,4,D that doesn't stink. 2,4,D is banned in my area, now, so I can't spread what I've got in case my environut neighbor snitches on me.

And what works better on grubs, carbaryl or DDT?

[Frank]

Very simple to make but chloral hydrate is a hypnotic and sale is highly restricted.

[Frank]

2,4D is simple to make from dichlorophenol and chloroacetic acid. It is a herbicide, not an insecticide. Carbaryl probably better for grubs.

[Stormin Mormon]

I've heard on the radio, that DDT is a lot more effective, and a lot less toxic to humans than what the government says. Certainly, a trace of DDT is a lot less dangerous than malaria, and other insect bourne diseases.

[HeyBub]

Actually, I don't think the government has ever said DDT *IS* toxic to humans. I recall there were people who were EATING DDT to prove its benign nature.

For example, the toxicity secion of the Wikipedia article on DDT lists several situations. In most, some weasel word is used:

• "might cause preterm birth"

• "studies suggest..."

• "some evidence to suggest..."

• "exposure is associated..."

• "may affect thyroid levels..."

But why was DDT banned? As I recall, laboratory rats, when force-fed five pounds of DDT per day, developed distended bellies and became lethargic. There was some evidence that the Star-faced mole (who doesn't REALLY have a face) developed teats when DDT was used in its environment.

Pic of Star-faced mole:

[Oren]

I thought the ban on DDT was to save the birds? The carrot in front of the stick.

[gfretwell]

DDT was banned because it was causing eagle egg shells to be too thin to survive. It had nothing to do with harming humans

[Dean Hoffman]

It was banned largely because of a book written by Rachel Carson called Silent Spring. This might be a good example of PR overwhelming science. Some commentary here from Junk Science:

[MIB]

DDT is still used around the world. It was banned in the U.S. by the first director of the EPA, out of spite, when the court cases against its use were lost. These cases were brought after some idiot of a wench used anecdotal evidence and shear BS in a book detailing the horrors of DDT. Pure, unadulterated crap.

Sort of like the drivel being peddled by Al Gore and his gang of envirofrauds, today.

[Jon Danniken]

DDT was banned because it was effective at reducing malaria-related deaths. In the part of the world where people die from malaria, it is more humane to let nature run its course than to get in the way and have all of those people breed uncontrollably and end up starving themselves to death (which they do anyway).

Jon

[Stormin Mormon]

What I remember back then, the birds were getting DDT in their system from the insects, and the rest of the food chain up to people were getting dosed with DDT. I'd rather have less mosqitos, and take my chances with the food chain.

[Stormin Mormon]

that sounds some how familiar.

[ktos]

Tegger wrote in news:Xns9D73CE3E81709tegger@208.90.168.18:

I'll snitch on you.

[ransley]

[e-mail]:

Grubs, "Milky Spore" it only attacks Grubs not all the good stuff in the soil that makes soil healthy like worms, microbes and beneficial insects. Poisons kill everything, and your soil.

[ransley]

Just making it will make you sick

[sligoNoSPAMjoe]

In my experience milky spore works fine, but it does take a few years to give good contol. After that, you don't need to add any more as it feeds on the grubs.

I have not applied any more for about five years. No grub problems.

[Matt]

I wonder whether you can understand that the book being crap does not imply that DDT is safe.

Do you suppose that if Al Gore peddles drivel, it implies that people should be free to go on dumping CO2 into the air indefinitely?

Just curious.

[Matt]

Good link.

That Wikipedia article is very enlightening and would easily convince most people that spraying DDT is generally a bad idea.

I wouldn't be surprise if you do remember that.

[HeyBub]

The good that DDT was doing was immense, provable, and demonstrable. The allegations against DDT in the book were apocryphal, unscientific, and insupportable. Millions, literally, have died because of reliance on "feel-good" environmental action.

Absolutely. The amount of CO2 in the air is roughly in the same ratio as the chalk outline of a football referee's body after he was stabbed eleven times by irate fans responding to three consecutive bad calls against the home team is to the entire field, end zones included. The amount of CO2 being added to the atmosphere is likewise equivalent to the increasing size of his blood stain as the bastard bleeds out.

One of the tenets of "Quality Control Thinking" is this: "I don't care what you BELIEVE. The only thing that counts is what you can PROVE." The "good" of additional CO2 - from machines that drive industry - is provable to a middling-quick child. The "belief" that something's amiss is pure conjecture.