and control of pest damage cannot be left to 
the decision and judgment of the individual 
who is directly affected, as is to a large 
extent at present. 
Something that retards the development of 
optimum control programs arises from the 
existing classification of controls into chemi- 
cal control, biological control, and so on, 
These are of course useful as descriptive 
terms for different control methods. The 
problem is that each method tends to have 
proponents who give inadequate or no atten- 
tion to other methods and on occasion oppose 
and defame them, This retards the develop- 
ment of the best control programs, which 
must be based on an objective evaluation of 
all methods in relation to each pest situation, 
which in turn involves regarding control as a 
unified concept and not as consisting of a 
number of more or less mutually exclusive 
methods, 
Many of the people who study and develop 
controls are employed by industry, and con- 
sequently have a commercial motive in pro- 
moting particular kinds of controls, notably 
chemical pesticides. It would thus not be 
reasonable to expect them to be active in 
promoting control as a unified concept, other 
than as a defensive reaction to criticisms. 
The appropriate action should come from 
the nonprofit organizations, such as govern- 
ment agencies and universities. However, at 
present many of those employed by such 
organizations also emphasize the study of con- 
trols that are based on chemical pesticides 
and tend to ignore parasites, predators, and 
other nonchemical controls. A_ significant 
reason for this is that those individuals 
often are under direct or indirect pressure 
from the public to produce usable results 
quickly. This influences them to concentrate 
on the chemicals, which are readily avail- 
able, have known characteristics, and produce 
more or less predictable effects, rather than 
to take the time and trouble to explore and 
develop the unknown potentials of parasites 
and predators. 
The study of the control of insects that are 
harmful to man's property is no different in 
principle from the study of the control of 
disease organisms that are harmful to man 
himself. A difference is that pest control is 
50 or 100 years behind human medicine. 
69 
We are still primarily using ways of sup- 
pressing the symptoms quickly and tempo- 
rarily rather than trying to find ways of 
preventing and curing the ailments. And in 
control programs we primarily use general- 
purpose nostrums, and with little regard 
as to how they may affect the patient's 
health or length of life or lower his re- 
sistance to attack by the same or other 
ailments. 
Modern medical research is aimed primarily 
at finding ways of preventing disease infection 
by manipulating the environment, of preventing 
it from developing if infection does occur, 
and of curing it as quickly as possible by 
remedies that best combine maximum effec- 
tiveness with minimal harmful reactions, 
residual effects, or permanent damage. Pest- 
control research should be primarily directed 
toward the same objectives. This would in- 
volve much greater relative emphasis than 
exists at present, or than is indicated by 
existing trends, on the study of parasites, 
predators, and other nonchemical controls 
and on their interrelations. 
The rate at which this emphasis will in- 
crease will depend basically on the attitude 
of the governmental and university agencies 
responsible for pest-control research, as on 
their attitude depends the numbers, the out- 
look, and the nature of the work of those 
whom they train and employ. Those agencies 
would have to take, more than now, the long- 
term view, as distinct from the short-term 
view of the grower who tends to be satisfied 
with measures that ostensibly cure his im- 
mediate problems immediately, And they would 
have to evaluate and compare different con- 
trol methods objectively, and not be influenced 
by biased propaganda from industry or un- 
informed pressure from the public. How 
quickly those agencies will do this and whether 
they will do enough soon enough nobody can 
predict. 
A final question is, how extensively will 
optimum control programs be applied after 
they have been devised? The reason for this 
question is that such programs often may be 
too refined and complex for the grower to 
apply them himself. The extent to which they 
will be applied may depend largely on the 
extent to which experts will be available to 
apply them. Again, we have a parallel with 
