August 25, 2009

• Sleep Tight

  As a lot of you are probably aware, bed bugs, creatures once thought to have been banished to the realm of childhood bed-time phrases and glimpses of less savoury times of life, are back. Driven nearly to extinction by the widespread use of DDT in the 1950s, the banning of that chemical in 1972 (thanks in large part to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring) has seen bed-bug numbers slowly return to their pre-expulsion levels. Places like New York are reportedly crawling with the insects, which, unlike roaches and rats, offer less physical harm, but perhaps do more psychological damage. Unfortunately, it seems that the spread of the pest continues unabated, due, in part, to a lack of concerted effort, but also because of the extreme cost and effort involved in excising them using steam-cleaning and localised poison methods.

  
  Carson

  And yet, there isn’t any really discussion of a return to a chemical that proved effective enough to nearly eradicate the pests in only a few years. While the toxic nature of DDT is obvious, a significant portion of its harm was imparted through widespread usage in the wilderness (indiscriminate spraying of fields, etc) which would then damage entire ecosystems.

  
  DDT and the Cheerful Workers who Sprayed It

  However, it seems to me that apartment buildings might offer the perfect opportunity to use DDT safely and effectively. As a relatively closed system, exposing an apartment building to the chemical would surely kill off fewer bald eagles than bombing half the country with noxious gas did. So, one could achieve the desired results without the collateral damage that made DDT usage in open spaces so unpalatable.

  Certainly, some effective solution is required. The insects spread quickly, and can survive for a year and a half between feedings. Removing them from buildings using current methods (involving sniffing dogs, super-heated water and spot chemical usage) is both extremely expensive, and of limited effect. DDT, on the other hand, has in the past proven its abilities against the pest.

  Now, I’m no scientist, but I’m no tree-hugging hippie either. (Most promising sentence ever for the start of a logical and balanced paragraph!) I don’t want to kill anything that exists as a balanced part of a natural environment, whether or not that directly affects me. However, the inner cities are not a natural environment, and the continued existence of bed-bugs is not required to maintain a delicate balance as would otherwise be present. The insects feed off human blood, are physically damaging, psychologically traumatising, and incur significant expense on society.

  
  There’s the Fiend Now!

  Do you think that, should it prove effective, DDT or other similar chemicals should be allowed to be used within the city to remove this scourge, or do you believe we should revert to nigh cave-man status, living in filth and squalor, reduced to swatting helplessly at the myriad of insects that prey upon our flesh unbidden?

  • 11:04 am
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