Insecticides Books

At this critical time with the honeybee populations in decline, A Spring Without Bees is a must read in the same league as Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. It discounts various theories from cell phones to GMO crops and places the cause of honeybee die-offs on a increasingly common chemical found in agriculture pesticides and even doe fleas treatments like K-9 Advantix. I immediately stopped putting that on my dogs, but imidacloprid aka IMD, is persistent in the environment for years. I have honeybees and hope that it doesn't effect my bees, and doesn't pass into my water supply vie dog urination and rain drain-off into my well. So read this and act now!

Ending Colony Collapse Disorder

Following in the footsteps of Rachel Carson, Michael Schacker again sounds the alarm that the normal functioning of the natural world is still being disrupted by man-made substances. In A SPRING WITHOUT BEES: HOW COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER HAS ENDANGERED OUR FOOD SUPPLY, he carefully investigates the plight of the European honeybees, many of which have died or been unable to find their way back to their hives. In the process of solving this disturbing mystery, Schacker examines the numerous theories that have been proposed as causes of CCD and reveals a new one--which is most probable, partly because it is supported by what has been known for decades about how products used to control harmful insects can also destroy helpful ones.

Schacker presents convincing arguments, including the experience of French beekeepers which point in the direction of neurotoxins that have changed certain pesticide formulas in the past five years. These poisons build up with repeated applications and remain in the soil for years. When the honeybee collects the flower nectar, it can "intoxicate" the bees to the point where they can no longer find their way home, causing the mysterious disappearance of whole hives. Partial exposure or eating poisoned winter stores of honey can weaken or kill the bees as well. The pervasive use of these pesticides, not just for agriculture but for lawns, golf courses, and parks makes it impossible for the honeybee to avid contamination. He further explains that human exposure to these pesticides is also a health risk, especially for children who play on these contaminated lawns.

But Schacker also offers hope for the honeybee, for humankind, and for the planet if we begin to act quickly. He presents strong arguments for avoiding the mechanistic approach of attempting to engineer nature for our own purposes, since that usually backfires into worse problems than what we intended to prevent. Instead, he advocates and describes numerous organic methods which everyone, including farmers, homeowners, golf course managers, and beekeepers, etc. can use to restore the natural balance to the planet and save the honeybee. This book is a call to action, backed up by extensive scientific data that needs to be heard by everyone one who cares about the future. This is a must-read that definitely deserves five stars!

Michael Shacker's book is a wake-up call to the world. It is by far the best told, best researched and most passionate of the published accounts about Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), laying out in vivid detail CCD's devastating, life-threatening effects on bees and on the human food supply. Bees are indispensible to the natural reproduction (pollenizing) of crucial plants we all rely on for food.

One reviewer here asserts this book contains woo-woo science (it doesn't; everything is documented). The same reviewer then suggests we might genetically engineer bees that can tolerate the neuro-toxin that France and Germany have banned. Excuse me? That's worse than woo woo. It's irresponsible. Genetically engineer bees to withstand neurotoxin so chemical companies can continue to put it in the ecosystemime ? This reviewer clearly does not get it. Five more years of tests and proofs before suspending the use of the suspect substance and there will be no hive populations left to resuscitate.

European bans on the neurotoxins in question are based on simple tests that vested lobbies in the US have managed to avoid so far. Would anyone suggest we engineer songbirds to withstand DDT and bring DDT back into mainstream farming? How about breeding people to tolerate eating sewage and sate their hunger at land fills? An equally nutty idea.

Schacker has clearly done his research and answers each speculation as to cause with the facts on the ground. By citing conclusions reached by scientists in Europe, Schacker issues a call to the United States to look seriously at these causes and perform the same tests.

If you're looking to inform yourself thoroughly on this agricultural disaster in the making, you're first stop, and your best, is here, at "A Spring Without Bees."

People can also help spread the word about CCD at Schacker's website: http://www.planbeecentral.com

Good progressive citizens know that Big Ag, specifically Big Agrichemical, has its hooks deeply imbedded into modern American farming.

Michael Schacker does a very good job of detailing how one part of these giant hooks is the likely cause for colony collapse disorder, the problem that has become a major headache to commercial beekeepers in the U.S. and, because of that, a threat to the majority of America's fruit, nut and vegetable crops, as well as the dairy industry.

In some cases, if not actually smoking guns, Schacker has at least the post-firing whiff of gunpowder lingering around the corporate farm crime scene. Or the Washington lobbyist crime scene.

In other places, though he has even less in the way of proof, there's a lot of circumstantial skepticism he raises. Namely, in this case, that's the corporate buying, er, "endowing," of university professorships. It's an ugly practice that many college presidents in today's day and age, considering themselves as CEOs of a sort, would actually like to increase.

No, Schacker can't PROVE that Bayer is buying off Penn State, for example, but it looks suspicious.

The end of the book has him detailing various ways in which we can make our own little corners of America more bee-friendly, from bee gardens through organic lawn maintenance and more.

But, as I said, this book has a speed bump or two.

The biggest?

A straw man called "mechanistic science." Not only does he build up this straw man, he approvingly references alleged physicist and definite New Age woo-hooer Fritjof Capra.

Sorry, Mr. Schacker, but you can't expect me to follow your skeptical line on Big Agrichem buying off U.S. universities and then expect me to blindly swallow such unskeptical writing, even if just on a couple of pages.

That's because this connects to the second speed bump.

For Schacker, the solution to many of the problems is black-and-white, all-or-nothing, specifically that we've got to go totally organic, as much as possible, as soon as possible. He dismisses Integrated Pest Management (which isn't always perfect, no) as only a half-solution. And, he overlooks facts like low-till and no-till farming are done by conventional as well as organic farmers.

Going back to "mechanistic science," he doesn't look at the possibility of genetically engineering honeybees to increase their neurotoxicity resistance, either. Or at doing scientifically-controlled crossbreeding of them with wild North American pollinator bees.

Finally, he may be a bit apocalyptic. I realize he's sounding an alarm; nonetheless, I doubt modern agriculture will collapse, even if CCD spreads further. It may limp along and struggle for a while; commercial beekeeping may go further and collapse itself, for a conjoined variety of reasons. But I highly doubt American agriculture itself will collapse.

I was originally going to four-star this, but in writing out this review, and mindful that it may get five-starred by all other reviewers, I can't.

Schacker's book is an excellent resource for the well-educated person who wants a broad and detailed review of Colony Collapse Disorder. It is not, however, the final word on the cause: Schacker takes one theory -- that CCD is caused by the pesticide imidacloprid (IMD) -- and, while making a convincing case, fails to account for some reported CCD die-offs that are *not* consistent with the pesticide theory. The work also wanders into topics that are arguably not related to CCD, as mentioned in other reviews. That said, the book is timely and well-researched, and presents an array of suggested responses to CCD that regular people can implement, from planting bee-friendly gardens, to keeping bees, to challenging government inaction/incompetence.

I bought this book as a new hardback because I feel the need to be as well educated as possible about CCD. I am one of the organizers of the 2008 San Francisco Bee-In on September 21st at the Randall Museum, which will serve both as a fundraiser for the documentary-in-progress The Vanishing of the Bees ([...]) as well as a public education event.

Schacker reviews some of the CCD theories that have made cameos in the news media over the last two years, including a thorough and amusing dismissal of the "cell phones are killing the bees!" story. After rejecting many theories, he presents the story of CCD in France (a story we've heard relatively little about in the U.S.) and explains why French beekeepers came to suspect the pesticide IMD. It's a compelling narrative, and there is data in the U.S. that supports it. However, one of our country's top bee researchers, Dr. Eric Mussen of UC Davis, recently recounted in his newsletter (repeated by apiarist Kim Flottum in his "Catch the Buzz" newsletter, available via [...]) that the pattern of CCD's spread looks more like a disease than pesticide misuse.

My point is, it's too early in the crisis to settle on one hypothesis. In the meantime, yes: let's invoke the "Precautionary Principle" and suspend IMD use. And yes, let's include the French research; to not do so would be anti-scientific and arguably criminal. But let's continue to do the science. More research is required, and the public can help by supporting funding for a broad research effort on CCD, both through private donation and pressure on government funding sources. (Funding earmarked for CCD by the USDA in early 2007 is only becoming available this August, almost a year and a half later; the severity of the crisis demands more timely and responsive leadership -- anything less is incompetence.)

I don't agree with everything Schacker argues in this book, but I do relate to the sentiments he expresses in Chapter Nine, "Civilization Collapse Disorder" (which includes the sub-chapter heading "The Public Has To Wake Up"). I am glad to see this book on the shelves: it's a thought-provoking and helpful -- if not quite perfect -- resource.

I think this is a fabulous book for young people because it teaches them how simplistic solutions can sometimes backfire and cause more problems than they solved. Not only is this book fun and enjoyable but the lesson children will learn from this book can be applied to all sorts of problems and issues in the world today.

This book is about the insect pestiside DDT and what it did to the ecology of Borneo. It is in rhyme. First they sprayed DDT on the houses to get rid of the mosquitos affecting Malaria. Then the caterpillars and the cockroaches came out. They weren't quite affected but they were covered with the spray. Then the geckoes ate them. But the DDT was poison to them. The cats got them. Soon the cats died out and rats came from the forest. The farmers needed to get rid of them so they parachuted cats on Borneo. Read this rhyming book. It teaches about the ecology too.

Since 1962, when Rachel Carson published her seminal work, Silent Spring, nothing much has changed in our practice of pest control. Carson had advocated that the methods we employ for pest control must be such that they do not destroy us along with the insects. Yet today, despite the lip service we pay to Silent Spring, and in spite of considerable environmental protest, public outcry and the availability of viable alternatives, we still choose to spray chemical pesticides at an alarming rate. In fact, chemical pesticides still remain our pest control method of choice.

Our attitude is to approach pests as organisms to control rather than manage; we exterminate instead of reduce; we dominate rather than learn to accommodate. Why this sad state of affairs remains so is a central theme of this book, which introduces the concept of pest management (as opposed to pest control). Pest management forces us to look beyond the immediate benefits and disadvantages, costs and side effects, of pest control methods towards choosing alternatives that are more environmentally compatible and less harmful to our own health. The author explores scientifically exciting alternative technologies such as biological control, yet admits, as the 1990 gypsy moth invasion of Vancouver has shown, that the public needs more education and assurance on its safety and environmental correctness.

This book provides such an education and forms the basis for novel biologically based strategies involving pheromones, parasitic insects, bio-engineered crops and pest diseases to become standard practice.

Mark L. Winston is professor of biological sciences at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. He is the author of two previous books, The Biology of the Honey Bee and Killer Bees.

I found this book to be a very good introduction to the issues surrounding control of pests. It uses cases histories such as attempts to control the gypsy and codling moths to introduce not only the biological and environmental issues but also the political influences on decisions to control pests. It's quite readable. Anyone familiar with Silent Spring will enjoy this book.

I think this is the standard textbook for an introductory mineralogy course. After it was rewritten by the current author, a lot was lost in the writing style. The latest format is a little difficult (wordy) to read but it is the best available. Combine this book with a good thin section book, lab manual, and a optical mineralogy textbook and you will have a good time in the lab section of your course work, and it will be useful long after you graduate. I know because I used my set of textbooks when I was working for a IM mining company and found them to be extremely useful in the office and in the field.

as a student i had to do lot of study on mineralogy and had trouble all along. bus since i stumbled along this book i enjoy mineralogy very much, and my understandig of this subject hase increased a million timen. truly a treasure!!!

From "Mister" to "Exalted Highness," the Anglo-European system of titles -- often, in documents, the most visible indication of aristocratic connections, and probably the least understood -- is here made clear and comprehensible. The labels by which an historical figure is known may be the only clue, other than nomenclature, to his status in society and his relationships to other members of his class. Written for the relative beginner, but a good brush-up for anyone.

Excellent review of the chemical compositions and modes of action for pesticides used in the agricultural and ornamental horticultural industry. A good resource for studying for pesticide use licensing exams, with study questions embedded in the chapters.

One of the most comprehensive texts on entomopathogenic viruses to be published recently is that by F. R. Hunter-Fujita et al. (authors and editors). This opus magnum is divided into four sections: basic principles; world survey, practical techniques; and environmental factors influencing viral survival.

The section on basic principles is subdivided into 10 chapters on: the rationale for using microbial pesticides, virus characteristics, assessment of biological activity, baculovirus ecology in insects, control strategies, virus production, formulation, spray application, conducting and recording field trials and future developments. Although this section duplicates much of what has been presented in earlier texts, it brings together information that has not been integrated into one text before, updates earlier information and broadens the utility of the book. The "rationale" chapter is a concise and convincing justification for the use of microbial control agents of insect pests. A fairly short chapter describing characteristics of entomopathogenic viruses provides a synopsis of each of the families of viruses found in insects with the majority of the information devoted to the Baculoviruses. The chapter also includes the latest nomenclatural information. The next chapter is a short introduction to the principles of assessment of biological activity that is supplemented with detailed "hands on" procedures in part three of the book (Practical Techniques). The chapter on ecology of baculoviruses in insect hosts presents a detailed overview of this subject and supplies the reader with a multitude of references. In addition to pathology and the dynamics of virus transmission, biotic and abiotic factors that influence viral activity in insects, persistence of virus in the environment and epidemiology, there is a section on the use of models in understanding and using Baculoviruses in pest management. The chapter on control strategies includes the use of viruses in classical and semi-classical biological control, inundative applications, methods to enhance effectiveness and integration of viruses with other pathogens and conventional chemical insecticides. Chapters on virus production, formulation and spray application present a mix of theory and practical information. The most comprehensive of these is the chapter on formulation which includes a broad range of formulation components and their functions. The chapter on "Conduct and recording of field control trials" delivers a concise overview on a variety of topics related to conducting field trials, including parameters related to the condition of the virus inoculum, virus coverage, susceptibility of the target insect, field design and statistical treatment, and recording data.

Part two of the book, "World survey" is a review of the usage of entomopathogenic viruses against specific pests from a global perspective. Twelve chapters cover 11 geographical regions in terms of current research and control practices. The introductory chapter by P. F. Entwistle presents an overview in the form of tables for each of the geographic areas covered in subsequent chapters. In addition to the viruses that are addressed in each zone, the tables present an overview of work being conducted on: strain search, characterization, infectivity testing, ecology, safety testing, environmental impact studies, formulation research, field trials, extension trials, production and development, registration, commercialization and sales. The following eleven chapters are contributed by 15 authors, most of which are from the geographic areas being covered. The length and content of the chapters varies, but the reader will be furnished with a summary of fairly up to date information literally from the four corners of the globe. The general format of each chapter includes a regional perspective, information on virus production, formulation, safety tests and registration, and field experimentation. Most of the information regarding field experimentation and efficacy is organized under specific target pest insects.

Part three is an extensive "how to do" section of the book that concentrates on techniques used to work with entomopathogenic viruses and their production in host insects and cell lines. It also includes biochemical and molecular methods (Western blots, protein assay, PCR, etc.) and a variety of useful information from general laboratory practice to spray application. The chapter on mass production, product formulation and quality control actually contains very little regarding mass production, but procedures for production are covered in several other chapters. Procedures for formulating virus supplement the detailed chapter on formulation in part one of the book. The final chapter of the section on registration requirements is a bit out of place in that it does not include practical techniques per se. Chapters in this section will be useful to the novice as well as the experienced insect pathologist and include step by step procedures, materials that are required, and didactic figures and diagrams to assist the user.

Part four on environmental factors influencing viral survival contains two short chapters focusing on solar radiation and the effect plant surfaces can have on viral activity. The solar radiation chapter generally covers the physical properties and biological impact of ultraviolet radiation in terms of damage to DNA, RNA and proteins. The chapter on plant surfaces addresses the effects of leaf surface macro- and micro-structure, and chemical and micro-meteorological conditions and their measurement.

The book will make an excellent addition to the library of anyone working on entomopathogenic viruses. Its thorough coverage of the subject will provide the reader with a single source of information without the need to cross reference another 2 or more books. The dedication of the book to the late Norman Crook is a sad reminder that we have lost one of our best in the field of entomopathogenic viruses.

I would like to buy this book and others related to it as I am reading MSc Agriculture at University and I am doing my thesis on pesticides residues. Could you possibly help by supplying addresses to buy mobile pesticide test kits to conduct tests on fields directly?

We use the book for the Department of Agricultural Pesticide Certification Program which is given to all new employees. The book is very useful in looking up general pesticide information as well indepth information on fumigations. The books format and print is very legable and easy to understand. The topic for each and every chapter are clearly spelled out and guild you to the proper sections in the book.I realize the labels that are in the book constantly change and are hard to keep current but I see the author tries their best to keep it current.The cost of the book seems quite high for organisations to purchase new copies every few years.

This book is full of useful information on triazine herbicides ranging from an article about the assessment of different climate patterns and soil types for atrazine movement to groundwater to an article about the role of Fisher 344 vs. Sprague-Dawley rats' reproductive patterns in the appearance of mammary tumors. Unfortunately, over half of the citations for the toxicological studies were from sources that were not peer reviewed. Furthermore, an odd citation style was used for many chapters in which the article title was not included in the citation. The book is clearly from a pro-pesticide use position, especially indicative in the first section on economics. However, setting this bias caveat aside, the book is an achievement in putting together many pieces in the triazine herbicide story: its history and use in agriculture; its water contamination routes and degradation products, its metabolites in aquatic organisms, animals and humans; and its possible impact to those exposed.