Nature Wars: People Vs. Pests,

Pesticides were one of the first environmental contaminants to exercise the public. But in the years since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the situation has hardly improved. Winston, a Canadian biological scientist and author of The Biology of the Honey Bee and Killer Bees, reviews innovations like the more holistic approach of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Bacillus thuringiensis (B.t.); Sterile Insect Release (SIR); pheromones; natural predators; and transgenics. He is very sanguine about the pluses and minuses of the various approaches and about the rampant rhetoric on both sides of the issue. He has little patience for those who manufacture herbicide-tolerant plants in order to sell more herbicide or for the ""posturing of uninformed sources,"" which threatens the benign spraying of B.t. Winston makes a convincing argument that the general public's absolutist stance toward pests is in large part responsible for the glacial pace of reform. Because consumers will not buy an orange that has been affected by the purely cosmetic rust blight, Florida citrus growers spray 80% of their crops three times a year. Because even a single cockroach sends a homeowner into a frenzy, there is a $1.5-billion-dollar industry aimed at eradicating this relatively harmless insect--one best dealt with by the chemical-free but time-intensive method of keeping the house clean and dry. In the end, we must change our fundamental ideas about pest control, says Winston, demanding long-term management rather than short-term eradication. (Nov.)