Insecticides Books

How many people today remember Rachel Carson? When you see an eagle or a falcon or a hawk, you can than k Rachel Carson. Her book "Silent Spring" incited action almost immediately against irresponsible pesticide use, including DDT, and launched an ecology movement that led to the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act. This is quite an accomplishment for an author of natural history books; Rachel Carson must have been larger than life, practically immortal, in order to have pulled this off.

But...as Linda Lear documents in extraordinary detail, Rachel Carson was entirely mortal, and all too human, and was not lacking in the faults most of us possess. Success came to Carson late (almost too late), but Carson's love of nature and her dogged determination allowed her to complete what is, perhaps, the most important book of the 20th Century before she succumbed to breast cancer. Lear's detail is incredibly deep; over and again she recounts instances from Carson's life that seem trivial and mundane until the reader feels bogged down in the excess of it. But this detail is critical, because Carson's life itself seemed mundane and trivial, that is until the last decade of it. Carson was a regular person-she was no superstar-and Lear's depth of detail is necessary in order to explain Carson's journey from a less-than-middle-class upbringing to government functionary to the preeminent nature writer of her time. Carson's life evolves slowly and ends tragically; she never married and she never had children-it is almost as if she was born to deliver "Silent Spring" at exactly the right moment in history, when it was needed the most, and then pass on.

In "Witness for Nature", Linda Lear does not allow Rachel Carson to become a cardboard icon of an earlier time; Lear recreates Carson as a complete person with loves and fears and faults. Carson's greatness rises on its own from Lear's writing.

Lear's detailed biography offers an unmatched look at Carson's personal and professional life. This book takes the reader behind the scenes of Rachel Carson's brilliant works in order to demonstrate the difficulties that dogged her every day existance. Lear chronicles Carson's personal perservance and dedication to the environmental cause in an immensely readable format. A wonderful and inspiring book to read!

An absolutely fabulous book on an environmental pioneer, "Witness for Nature" offers up three very important reminders: (1) We must never forget the prophetic contribution of Rachel Carson; (2) we must carry on her bold and visionary mission, never backing down from, as the book described them, the "powerful adversaries" of the chemical industry, corporate agriculture and others that seek to impose their technological will on the rest of us; and (3) we must treasure every day we have left and take the time to cherish our gifts in the natural world. I only wish Rachel Carson had lived to be 100 so she could have carried on her ecological vision for many more decades.

The first reviewer, Shari Just, has captured perfectly the quality, scope and value of Lear's biography. If you have ever wondered "can one person make a difference" this is the proof. A readable blend of history, place, people and events describing a modest scientist that loved to communicate scientific findings to a wider audience.

I went to serveral book stores looking for the book I needed - to no avail. I came home and looked through the phone book to obtain book stores who might have the book I needed - to no avail. I went on line to Amazon.com and what to my wondering eyes - the book I needed. I received it in two day's time and lived happily ever after. Thank you Amazon!

This story details how people suffer and die from the repressive labor practices of pesticide-addicted agribusiness. It should give pause to people eating foods produced and harvested in places whose labor practices are known to be repressive. It should spur support for "fairly-traded" foods and also should spur investigations into the activities of agribusinesses using pesticides but probably won't because the power these corporations have over people and political systems continues to increase.

This should be considered essential reading for anyone working in the areas of public health and occupational health. It is a modern but 'classic' occupational health story, which illustrates again, that when workers are repressed, forced by economic circumstances to accept their working conditions as their employers dictate, significant health problems follow.

And the long screw of history keeps on turning...

"...those concerned with biocontrol issues may find the sophistication of some of the bacterial work particularly interesting...mycologists with a primary interest in biocontrol will find much of interest in these titles."

The first chapter might be titled "Why what you have read in the newspapers or seen on TV about globalization is mostly wrong"! It comes as no suprise that the popular media are "econmics challenged." Jones presents the facts, thoroughly documented, that show globalization is not about exporting American jobs, but rather ongoing productivity improvement is why there are fewer jobs in manufacturing today. He is concerned about the trendiness that infects business managers to put all new research and development offshore, however. He makes the case that Congress is doing more via the law of unintended consequences to drive the chemical industry overseas.
The section on pharmaceuticals is first rate, with extensive references, on how big and little pharma now have a symbiotic relationship and how governments woo them them to come and work in their country -- or in some cases, to go and work somewhere else. It's nice to know that pharma, on net, moves more R&D into the US than out of it. All of the major countries are covered.
The section on China makes you want to do business there, but also cautions on what can go wrong and how to avoid bad things happening. Also thoroughly documented, this review shows how the the Chinese economy can continue to grow for a very long time by just meeting the needs of its own hugh population alone, but the entrepreneurial Chinese culture will also always be involved elsewhere in the world.

Holden does a marvelous job of exposing the vast gap between what Westerners think Greece is (the cradle of democracy, blah, blah, blah) and what it is in actuality -- a patriarchal, anti-Western society, if not exactly in the mold of its Arab and Turkish neighbors, close enough for discomfort. Greece is not about Hellenism; it is about living in the dreamworld of the "Megali Idea" in which the Greeks will recover all former Greek Byzantine islands as well as the Byzantine city of Constantinople, lost in 1453 to the Ottoman Muslim empire -- due to the "perfidious West's" failure to come to their aid and to their own constant in-fighting and regicide. HOWEVER, Greeks are never to blame for their self-imposed miseries and political failures -- it's always a conspiracy of foreigners; in other words, they think like Arabs. Both Greeks and Arabs find common cause in hating the Turks for the latter's murderous dominance during the glory days of the Ottoman empire. Understanding politics in the Middle East is all about knowing which ethnic groups hate which ethnic groups and why. America, which pours all its energy into denying ethnic, religious, and racial differences, can't begin to fathom the mindset of the Middle East, where for thousands of years ethnic and religious wars have been waged using wholesale slaughter and scorched earth policies. (That having been said, the illusion of waging a "war for liberation" in Iraq in 2001 is giving the US a rude awakening). Holden has the key to the passions and jealousies and hatreds fueling Greece and Turkey and presents ample proof for his observations.

This book covers all the desired aspects of entomopathogenic bacteria. Each chapter is quite easy to follow. Best of the best!

Accurate study that try to predict the role of pesticides in the next 10 years, from 1999. A must read book for those envolved with agriculture, but easy to read for everyone that need to understand more about pesticides (without prejudice). We need more of this kind of study for another important subjects allover the world.

From the table of contents: Introduction, Flea Facts, Flea Types, Flea Bites, Life Cycle of the Flea: The Egg Stage, The Larval Stage, Cocoon (or Pupal) Stage, Flea Control Techniques That Do Not Use Insecticides: Pet Grooming, Housekeeping, Mechanical Trap, Pet Control, Landscape/Outside Care, Desiccant Powders, Repellents, Related Topics, Flea Control Techniques That Use Insecticides: Information Sources, Classes of Insecticide Chemicals, Product Types, Recommendations, Final Note, References. This book gives more details on flea control than I have found anywhere else after checking many books. It helps you decide exactly what to do.

I happen to be a brand new graduate student of one of the people who furnished a chapter for this book, Steven de Belle. Because of that I have to confess that I am a little biased. However, I have used this book almost as a bible for my research. It is well written and organized in a convenient manner. If you are currently involved in olfaction research or want to get started I highly recommend this book. It is still very current information and I have found no errors so far. Thanks for your time.

In the Metcalfian style, established in preceeding texts by a preceeding Metcalf; Destructive and Useful Insects by Metcalf and Flint (early 60's), this textbook was, I believe, intended for agricultural entomology students and should serve very well for such purpose.