Word: insects
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...Harvard's four major insect spraying projects, the ivy moth program has come in for particular criticism...
Before tree specialists stopped using hard pesticides like DDT to combat the elm disease, insecticide killings of birds were apparently common in Cambridge. Charles F. Walcott, a retired physician and amateur ornithologist, recalls seeing three insect-eating species-the robin, hermit thrush, and flicker-in "typical DDT convulsions" on his property off Sparks Street...
Arsenate of lead was used to fight this outbreak, and soon afterwards, the orioles that had nested in the elms slowly disappeared. The small insect-eating vireos and warblers in the area apparently suffered also...
...correct solution was sent in by four different scientists, including Insect Physiologist David Smith of the University of Miami. "These structures," he explained, "are brochosomes, bizarre excretory products of the Malpighian tubules of leaf hoppers." In other words, Harwell's UFOs are insect droppings...
...restore the balance?and often overreacts. When farmers wipe out one pest with powerful chemicals, they may soon find their crops afflicted with six pests that are resistant to the chemicals. Worse, the impact of a pesticide like DDT can be vastly magnified in food chains. Thus DDT kills insect-eating birds that normally control the pests that now destroy the farmers' crops. The "domino theory" is clearly applicable to the environment...