ob sti AUD We BeOeNS “BU bl Et TN 15 
PESTICIDES — THE UNDECLARED WAR 
By PAUL H. Lopik 
Dr. GEORGE J. WALLACE, Michigan State University zoologist, recently stated 
in the Jack Pine Warbler, journal of the Michigan Audubon Society, that 
the current pest-eradication and other spraying programs will soon result 
reas <4.” a greater extermination of animal life than in all the previous 
years of man’s history on earth.” As Dutch elm disease marches westward 
across the United States, more and more communities are resorting to 
spraying with D.D.T. in an effort to save their trees. We are witnessing 
the spread of an undeclared war that seems certain to wipe out many of 
the songbirds we can least afford to lose. 
In the last two months your Editor has appeared before village board 
meetings in Downers Grove and Lombard, Illinois, to testify against spray- 
ing for Dutch elm disease control. We have pointed out that spraying de- 
stroys the natural controls of pest insects — the birds, parasitic wasps, 
and lady bird beetles — so that increasingly heavy applications must be 
made each year to keep unwanted insects checked. We stated that when the 
balance of nature is upset, new pests and diseases appear to plague the 
plants, and that therefore spraying is not the proper solution to the elm 
disease problem. ... In each instance the village board, already committed 
to an expensive spraying program, voted against our recommendations. 
In other communities the results have been happier. The National Audu- 
bon Society’s News and Views and Leader’s Conservation Guide, Vol. 1:16 
(Dec., 1960) reports that a committee of five citizens met in DeKalb, IIl. 
last September to study the Dutch elm disease there. After a conference 
with a news reporter, city councilman, and others present, it was agreed 
that more public information was needed. Our Assistant Editor, William 
Southern, wrote a series of local newspaper articles on the disease, the 
effects of spraying, and the merits of replacing dead elms with a variety 
of trees. In a few weeks the city decided not to spray, and obtained bids for 
tree removal. The Junior Chamber of Commerce offered to buy trees to re- 
place dead elms removed by home-owners. The local garden club, Audubon 
Society, and other groups volunteered to plant trees recommended by land- 
Scape experts. 
The December issue of News and Views also contained an excellent “‘Rec- 
ommended Model State Law for Controlling the Use of Pesticides.” The 
Wisconsin Legislature is presently considering such a law, which has al- 
ready been adopted in several other states. 
The same publication describes how Toledo, Ohio stopped spraying after 
seven years: “Toledo started massive spraying of elms in 1953 and repeated 
the treatment annually through 1959, according to Donald B. Kendall, 
president of the Toledo Naturalists’ Association. An outbreak of cottony 
maple scale in 1958 and the subsequent failure of the chemical malathion 
to check the scale, caused City Forester Joseph Sweeney to take a second 
look at the elms and the results he was failing to get with D.D.T. 
“Sweeney examined the elms in surrounding Lucas County, which had 
not been sprayed, and found them less affected by the disease than the 
D.D.T.-treated city trees. He then made his decision to stop the spraying, 
which he concluded was destroying the natural controls for Dutch elm 
disease as well as the cottony maple scale. . .. Various civic groups are 
helping with the new Toledo program, removing the diseased elms and re- 
placing them with other trees.” 
