138 DDT— Killer of Killers 



least as far as we are concerned. But actually, it's a lot hard- 

 er to shift the balance of nature than many people assume. 

 Your potato patch may be free from bugs today, but stop 

 spraying or dusting and see how it is in a few weeks. The 

 bugs will be back by the millions — their numbers seemingly 

 unaffected by the temporary setback caused by your spray 

 gun. 



One thing that many folks worry about is the fact that 

 DDT kills beneficial and harmless insects as well as those 

 that cause us trouble. There is always the possibility that 

 we may kill off more of the good bugs than the bad ones, 

 and thus do more harm than good. But the chances of this 

 happening are not very great. Even if every insect in a 

 large forest area were killed, the area would be completely 

 repopulated within a few weeks or months, as swarms of in- 

 sects of every description moved in from the surrounding 

 areas. 



Of course, if all the insects on a whole continent could 

 be killed, it would be interesting to see what would happen. 

 But that we shall never see! In the first place, to treat a 

 whole continent with DDT would cost a little money. The 

 United States occupies about 2 billion acres of the earth's 

 surface. Assuming a cost of $1.50 per acre for material 

 and labor, it would cost about 3 billion dollars to spray the 

 whole United States with DDT. Once upon a time this 

 would have been considered out of the question. But not 

 today! Not long ago this country granted Great Britain a 

 so-called "loan" of 3% billion dollars, and during the war, 

 between 2 and 3 billion were spent on the development of 

 the atomic bomb. But even if, in some way, we could pro- 

 duce the tremendous quantity of DDT required, and if we 

 could get hold of the money, we probably would be disap- 



