Getting Clean: Recovering from Pesticide Addiction

Getting Clean: Recovering from Pesticide Addiction

What types of feedbacks were causing the problem in the first place? Were they real, perceived or both?

It is normal that when you start to use a new pesticide results obtained are very good and pest control is achieved with little of the product. After a while often begin to experience problems that diminish the utility of that product and make it necessary to search for new pesticides (Marten, Donna, 2007). This and other problems of pesticide use are discussed below:

Genetic resistance

The so-called genetic resistance occurs because of the many individuals in the population of a pest some have genes that make the pesticide is not toxic to them and these guys put up with Pesticide Action without dying. It is these that are dead which have offspring and form new populations of the pest who inherit the gene for resistance and Pesticide Action against them will be much lower. As in insects, and generally in pest organisms, generations succeed each other rapidly and the population size is very large, extending genetic resistance in a few years. The number of species of pest resistance to pesticides has increased from a few (be counted on the fingers) 50 years ago, more than 700 today (Marten, Donna, 2007).

Changes in the ecosystem

Another major problem associated with the use of pesticides is that they kill not only the pests but also beneficial insects like bees, ladybugs and other agencies. This can wipe out the enemies of the pest or cause these to move to other places because they no longer find food in this area and, after a brief period, the pest population and also report in greater numbers than before having no natural enemies. For example, in an investigation in which the insecticide dihedron was used to kill Japanese beetles, scientists found that this insecticide also caused the death of a large number of organisms such as birds, rabbits, squirrels, cats and beneficial insects. Since then the use of dihedron has been abolished in some countries (Marten, Donna, 2007).

Cause the appearance of new pests

The above changes in the ecosystem have resulted, at times, that organizations that hitherto were not pests, the disappearance of other species that remained controlled their numbers have become new pests. For example, when using DDT to control insects that destroyed the lemon, as an indirect consequence of a new pest originated with a sucking insect that attacks plants and that it was problematic prior to treatment with DDT (Miller, 2004).

Accumulation in the food chain (bioaccumulation)

Some pesticides have chemical structures very stable and take years to decay to less toxic forms. In areas where these substances are poured insecticide concentrations are increasing and although time has passed since the last application the pesticide will present permeating everything. In many cases these products are also difficult to remove by organisms because they are poorly soluble in water and tend to accumulate in fatty tissue. When some agencies are being eaten by other ...