Introductions

[Paul Cherubini]

Michael Gochfeld wrote:

>Several people with some knowledge of NJ butterflies in the 1950's have questioned 
>the relationship to Gypsy Moth spraying and several others seem confident of a causal >connection.  Although die-offs, crashes, explosions, etc, are not new, it seems highly 
>coincidental that so many crashes occurred approximately during the decade when the
>spraying began in earnest (note the hedge again). 

That's what it always seems to come down to--just circumstantial
evidence that pesticides are the cause of die offs. 

But folks like me in the pesticde industry would simply look up the
records for the total tonnage of different insecticides that were used
per year in New Jersey in the 1950's and figure out how many acres they
could treat and how often. The usual finding is that only a tiny
fraction of the land area of any state got treated and usually only once
or twice with a material and dosage that could not even kill 50% of the
insects present (either target or non-target insects). 

The agrochemical industry does not get rich by exterminating insects. It
gets rich from repeat business. Insecticide manufacturers and
distributors know that their products rarely kill off more that 25-75%
of the target and non-target insects present and customers will soon
need to order more.

Paul Cherubini