ecm Ae Ch LI eU) ds OaNGe baw lualy Rod ole 5 
and a relatively harmless iexample 
had quick, dramatic effects in the 
village last summer. 
A FRIEND of ours reported that 
she had pests on her roses but 
checked them with a spray, and 
now her cucumbers and squash 
didn’t set fruit, her neighbor’s 
apple tree had almost no apples on 
it, and another neighbor down the 
street who had a couple of hives of 
bees said his bees were dying off. 
I asked what she had used on her 
roses, and she said, “Sevin. It’s 
totally harmless!” And I had to 
say that while it is harmless to 
birds and beasts it doesn’t discrim- 
inate among insects. It killed what- 
ever was gnawing her roses, but 
it also killed every bee in sight, 
and bees not only make honey, but 
they fertilize apple blossoms and 
squashes and a good many other 
things. Something like a billion 
dollars worth of crops in this coun- 
try depend on bees to fertilize 
them. 
IN OUR GARDEN, we use no 
pesticide but rotenone. Rotenone 
and birds, as a matter of fact, and 
the emphasis really is on birds. 
EVERY GARDENER who values 
his life, not to mention his health, 
should cherish the birds. Not for 
their songs, which are really a 
bonus, but for their everlasting war 
on noxious insects. Without the 
birds we would all be eaten alive 
if we didn’t starve to death first. 
There are more insects than any 
other form of visible life on earth. 
They probably outnumber people 
almost a million to one. Many of 
them are helpful, like the bees, 
necessary for plant life; but billions 
of others are, in human terms, pests. 
And their only major natural en- 
emies are birds. Birds and each 
other, for a great many of them 
live on other insects. 
WHEN THE defenders of viru- 
lent pesticides snort, “What does 
it matter if a few songbirds die?” 
they are flouting a basic fact of 
ecology. A few dead songbirds of 
themselves matter little, but they 
are symptomatic, evidence of seri- 
ous trouble which spreads from a 
few to many. And if anyone or any- 
thing kills the birds here in my 
valley, they threaten my life, for 
without the birds, the insects take 
over. I am not a bird-birdy man 
who sheds tears over every dead 
bird, but I can read facts and 
figures. Here are a few: 
ONE FLICKER will eat more 
than 5,000 ants in a day, and a 
few dozen grubs and borers for 
dessert. 
BROWN THRASHERS eat beet- 
les, white grubs, army worms, cut- 
worms, tent caterpillars, wasps, 
grasshoppers, spiders, and some 
wild fruit. 
ABOUT HALF of a robin’s diet 
is worms and insects, including 
slugs and snails, damp-weather 
scourge of every garden. 
THE WOOD THRUSH eats cater- 
pillars of all kinds, including gypsy 
moths, spiders, potato beetles, 
grasshoppers, weevils, crickets. 
BLUEBIRDS eat two mouthfuls 
of insects, chiefly caterpillars, 
grasshoppers and beetles, for every 
mouthful of wild fruit. 
