1961] 
Insect Control Programs 
89 
lor per acre, the insecticides being incorporated in granules of an inert 
material to cut down wind drift and lessen loss by foliage interception. 
It had been established that this formulation would be spread in the 
upper soil layers when rain dissolved the granules, and that its effect 
would last at least three years. 1 Dieldrin was used at three pounds 
per acre wherever another pest, the white fringe beetle, occurred as 
well as the ant, thus treating for both pests at once. Where the ant 
occurred alone, heptachlor was usually the choice. Dieldrin and 
heptachlor are extremely toxic substances — about 4-15 times as toxic 
to wildlife as is DDT. 8 Many wildlife experts and conservationists, 
as well as entomologists both basic and economic, felt a sense of 
foreboding at the start of a program that would deposit poisons with 
8-30 times the killing power of the common forest dosage of DDT 
(one pound per acre in gypsy moth control). 
The spray campaign got off to such a fast start that both state and 
Federal agencies were caught without being able properly to organize 
programs that year for assessing the effects of the poisons on wildlife, 
so that results of such programs were delayed until after large amounts 
of toxicants had already been laid down. 
Now that some of these results are finally available, we can see that 
they were acutely needed before the program was ever begun. The 
misgivings of the wildlife people seem to have been justified on the 
whole, since the kill of wildlife in sample treated areas appears to have 
been high in most of those that were adequately checked. 5 ’ 8> 10, 12> 21 
The USDA disputes many of the claims of damage, but their own 
statements often tend to be vague and general. It does seem to be true 
that quail and perhaps other wildlife species will make a good come- 
back on treated land after two or three years, provided that untreated 
areas are available nearby to furnish replenishment stocks once the 
treated land begins to recover. Still, most of the information on wild- 
life repopulation comes from the accounts of hunters and other sources 
not subject to proper checking, and we still have little in the way of 
published studies by competent authorities on ecological recovery of 
treated lands. 
Wash-off into streams and inlets has led to heavy losses among 
fish, crayfish and aquatic insects. Dieldrin at only one pound per acre 
sprayed on a salt marsh at Vero Beach, Florida, killed all the fish 
(including young tarpon) and Crustacea in the marsh and adjacent 
waters, and the effect lasting for weeks. 12 This particular test, meant 
to control sandfly populations, applied only half of the dosage of 
dieldrin originally used for fire ant control, and one-third the dosage 
actually used on white fringe beetle together with fire ant. 
