BOOKS
Controlling Insects with Biology Reviewed by Merrill L. Cleveland
"Not since Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring' has so urgent a clarion call been sounded. 'The Dragon Hunters' shows us the way to ecological survival." So says author and commentator Roger Caras on the front of the jacket of "The Dragon Hunters." Les Line, editor of Audubon magazine, comments on the back of the jacket, "Rachel Carson's 1962 shocker, 'Silent Spring,' warned us of the devastating results of pesticide abuse. Now, while there's still time to curb the chemical countdown, Frank Graham Jr. narrates tales of the environmental scientists around us who are tracking down nature's hidden ways of nonpolluting pest control. 'The Dragon Hunters' is a timely, profoundly important, and fascinating book." To call "The Dragon Hunters" an "urgent clarion call" is a bit much, although it may sell books. To call "The Dragon Hunters" a series of "tales of the environmental scientists around us who are tracking down nature's hidden ways of nonpolluting pest control" is much closer to what Graham's book is all about. Frank Graham, a field editor of Audubon, does, indeed, narrate tales of environmental scientists—for the most part, entomologists who are or have been engaged in controlling insects and other pests through biological means. His book is thoroughly fascinating and very well written. He has done his homework. In putting his stories together, Graham interviewed a considerable number of scientists currently engaged in biocontrol research and read extensively the work of others. His artful use of quotes creates the illusion that the scientists are telling their own stories. Graham's introduction, as it should, sets the tone for the book—if one could but discount the excessive references to Rachel Carson. His discussion of the triumph of Charles V. Riley and Albert Koebele 28
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Some observers will disagree at least partly with this evaluation. Use of biological The author takes us into government and industrial laboratories and control methods rather into farming areas both in the U.S. than chemicals to keep and abroad and allows us to hear and feel the excitement of the hunt. He insects in check has accurately compares the unending, expensive war against the gypsy achieved some success moth with the relatively quick and easy 10-year battle against the cereal leaf beetle. "By the end of the 1970s, "The Dragon Hunters" by Frank when the USDA pulled out of the Graham Jr., E. P. Dutton Inc., 2 Park program, it had spent a total of $15 Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016, 1984, million on the biological control of 334 pages, $22.95 the cereal leaf beetle. At the height of the infestation, [this beetle] had been Merrill L. Cleveland, after serving 10 costing growers that much in a single years as national research program leaderyear," says Graham. for insect control in horticultural crops Two paragraphs in "The Dragon with the Department of Agriculture's Hunters" catch the essence of the Agricultural Research Service, now is highly successful screwworm proresearch adviser to the service's admin- gram. In one, he states, " 'We stand istrator in Washington, D.C. now where two roads diverge/ Rachel Carson wrote in 'Silent Spring' as she surveyed the impending choice between using more insectiover cottony-cushion scale is re- cides and finding alternatives to freshing. From the first chapter, the solve our pest problems. But, unlike reader is led gently from insect to the roads in Robert Frost's familiar insect and problem to problem, poem, they are not equally fair. The without the haze of scientific jargon road we have long been traveling is so common in books of this type. deceptively easy, a smooth superGraham weaves his tales in sufficient highway on which we progress with detail to satisfy the scientist, but not great speed, but at its end lies disasto such an extent that they over- ter. The other fork of the road—the whelm the layman. He explains un- one less traveled by'—offers our last, familiar terms, and, for the purist, he our only chance to reach a destinaeven spends a moment to differen- tion that assures the preservation of tiate such terms as "parasite" and our Earth." In the next paragraph, Graham "parasitoid." The century of frustration that the says, "The first of these 'other roads' U.S. has suffered under the on- she chose to write about in her book slaught of the gypsy moth is, for the was the sterile-male technique demost part, accurately described by veloped by Edward Knipling, who Graham and by those he quotes. At became chief of the USDA's Entoone point, he says, "After many years mology Research Branch in the of neglect, the USDA revived its 1950s. It was Knipling's ingenious program for importing parasites. idea to rear pest insects in enormous Both those natural enemies and the numbers, sterilize them through rascientists who worked with them diation, and then release them to were held in low regard among compete with normal males for feUSDA's decision makers during the males in the wild. In this 'autocidal' time the agency promoted chemicals campaign, the insect spreads sterility as the final solution for pest insects." and eventually eradication through
its own population. . . . The tech nique fulfilled Rachel Carson's high hopes in almost completely elimi nating the need for insecticides against a major pest, and it even raised expectations in other quarters that it could be successful against other pests." The preceding paragraphs are cited not only to illustrate the suc cessful screwworm program but also to point out the wages of success. Anyone who has had brilliant suc cess, be it a Riley with his cottonycushion scale or a Knipling with his screwworm, must deal with people who have different ideas or who claim that they could have done it better or who insist that it never really happened. The latter seems to be the case with several eminently successful sterilemale campaigns against the Medi terranean fruit fly, as well as with the control of the citrus blackfly by in troduced parasites in Florida and Texas. (Incidentally, neither the Mediterranean fruit fly nor the citrus
blackfly is mentioned anywhere in Graham's book.) In Graham's discussion of boll weevil, bollworm, and tobacco budworm problems on cotton, it is ob vious that not all sectors have been either heard from or sought out. To say that a divergence of opinion ex ists as to how these control programs are or should be run is an under statement. Graham is a realist in that he does not advocate the immediate banning of all chemical insecticides. He sup ports the need for more selective and safer insecticides and sees the ad vantages of integrated pest manage ment programs, most of which em ploy some chemicals. Ideally, he would like to see the gradual elimi nation of chemical insecticides, ex cept for their use in truly emergency situations. He sums up his views well: "In the long run, the success of biological control (as well as other alternatives to chemical insecticides) will depend on how the farming community
perceives its worth in dollars and cents. Rachel Carson's argument for taking 'the other road' will prevail, not because more people come to share her concern for life, as desir able as that would be, but because chemical control no longer turns a profit. "The impressive list of successes already scored by biological control proceeds from the scientist's aware ness of an insect's adaptability and the complexity of its environment; he understands the uniqueness of the individual and its capacity for ad justing to outside forces. The impor tant choices that lie ahead for science—and society—ought to be informed ones. Workers in biological control, by asking probing questions of the natural world, offer hope that humanity can live on better terms with its only real competitors for as cendancy on this planet." Clearly, "The Dragon Hunters" is a good, thought-provoking book that deserves to be read by both scientists and nonscientists. D
Two-Day Short Course— POLMERS *» ELECTRONIC APPLICATIONS June 27-28, 1985
15th Northeast Regional Meeting AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
Co-sponsored by: Institute in Materials Science
State University of New York at New Paltz •PROGRAM· Thursday, June 27 Morning Deep UV or Electron Beam Lithography Ms · Jane Shaw Optical Lithography Dr. Robert Miller Afternoon X-Ray Lithography Dr. H.S. Choong «* i^ τ ι» · Λ i. Multi-Level Lithography Schemes Dr. C.W. Wilkins,Jr.
Friday, June 28 Morning Polyimides I Dr. Y.K. Lee Polyimides II Mr. William Motsiff Afternoon Laser Writing of Organometallics Dr. M.E. Gross IC Encapsulants
Scientific Program Chairman: Cletus W. Wilkins, Jr., Ph.D., Technical Staff, Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey. Additional information may be obtained by writing or calling: Dr. Angelos V. Patsis, Director, Materials Research Laboratory, State University of New York, New Paltz, New York 12561, Tel.: (914)257-2175
Dr. C.P. Wong May 13, 1985C&EN
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