What are the effects of some pesticides on non-target populations?
366656
Depends entirely on the pesticide and in what situation the pesticide is being used.\n\nA broad-spectrum insecticide applied to an open field will have an effect on all of the insects, including beneficial insects such as bees, dragonflies, lacewings, and ladybird beetles in the field, in addition to whatever pests you were originally aiming at.\n\nThe same insecticide applied to a lake to kill mosquitoes would kill dragonfly larvae, fish, diving beetles, and frogs, but probably wouldn't kill any mosquitoes, since the predators would have taken care of them (assuming you hadn't already killed them with a previous pesticide application).\n\nThat same insecticide applied to a small, temporary pond that formed in a field after a rainfall would kill mosquito larvae, as well as some midge larvae, copepods and perhaps some snails, but nothing else as few other creatures are able to exploit that habitat.\n\nProper use of pesticides, even ones normally considered 'hard' chemicals, can be done in such a way that they have little impact on non-target populations.  Improper use of pesticides, even 'soft' chemicals, can kill wide numbers and varieties of non-target organisms, and can even make the pest situation worse if it kills off less numerous predators, and the pests are able to rebound faster.
1045549
Genetically modified foods, bio-pesticides and bio-engineered therapeutic products or vaccines are some examples.
556331
*Nicotine sulfate was extracted from tobacco leaves for use as an insecticide.\n*Pyrethrum which is derived from crysanthemums.\n*Rotenone which is derived from the roots of tropical legumes.\n*Azardirectin is extracted from tropical plant Azardirecta indica.\n*Microbial pesticides consist of a microorganism (e.g., a bacterium, fungus, virus or protozoan) as the active ingredient. Microbial pesticides can control many different kinds of pests, although each separate active ingredient is relatively specific for its target pest[s]. For example, there are fungi that control certain weeds, and other fungi that kill specific insects.The most widely used microbial pesticides are subspecies and strains of Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt. Each strain of this bacterium produces a different mix of proteins, and specifically kills one or a few related species of insect larvae. While some Bt's control moth larvae found on plants, other Bt's are specific for larvae of flies and mosquitoes. The target insect species are determined by whether the particular Bt produces a protein that can bind to a larval gut receptor, thereby causing the insect larvae to starve.\n*Biochemical pesticides are naturally occurring substances that control pests by non-toxic mechanisms. Conventional pesticides, by contrast, are generally synthetic materials that directly kill or inactivate the pest. Biochemical pesticides include substances, such as insect sex pheromones, that interfere with mating, as well as various scented plant extracts that attract insect pests to traps. Because it is sometimes difficult to determine whether a substance meets the criteria for classification as a biochemical pesticide, EPA has established a special committee to make such decisions.\n*Plant-Incorporated-Protectants (PIPs) are pesticidal substances that plants produce from genetic material that has been added to the plant. For example, scientists can take the gene for the Bt pesticidal protein, and introduce the gene into the plant's own genetic material. Then the plant, instead of the Bt bacterium, manufactures the substance that destroys the pest. The protein and its genetic material, but not the plant itself, are regulated by EPA.
56102
oil, coal, natural gas.\n\nancient plant matter.\n\nIt depends on how old the human is. An adult has 206.\n\nIt isn't. But it might be just as bad, depends on the chemical and the duration and level of exposure.\n\nHuman Immuno-deficiency Virus.
136425
They can kill off plants or animals that other animals compete with causing an overpopulation of that species. Or they can introduce a new species into a previously stable ecosystem. The new species may have no competition in the new environment and may overpopulate or it may eat another species and wipe it out.
677256
I don't really know.... my guesses would be regulating the fish population. I think a negative effect might be that fact that because they're an endangered creature wherever they build their nests, they can't be moved regardless of how inconvienet it is to people.
761292
without pesticides  . . .
999780
A simplistic answer is this: organic farming uses growing techniques that do not involve the use of pesticides.
545771
Effects of deforestation.\n\nthis can be a local problem with global consequences.\n\ncan be biology and chemsitry (maybe physics as well, heat flows etc.)
649639
Disadvantages: \n\nA few accidental poisonings worldwide every years.\n\nA few hundred thousand individual animals poisoned, none threatened.\n\nAdvantages: \n\nEntirely responsible for our ability to feed the world. Without pesticides we could not produce enough food to feed even 1/10th of the people alive today. The rest would starve because crops would be eaten by insects.\n\nEntirely resposnible for controlling insect born diseases. Without pesticides millions would die every DAY from diseases such as malaria, typhoid and West Nile Virus.\n\nEnables us to maintain huge wilderness reserves. Without pesticides we would have to clear all wilderness areas for food production and as a result kill all wild animals and plants.\n\n\nYeah, I think we can probably say the benefits outweigh the disadvantages, since without pesticides we would have the same disadvantages multiplied a thousand fold and none of the advantages.
1100875
No, but there is a chemical called 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyethanoic acid which is listed as a noxious chemical and is used as a herbicide.
189245
Insects are sprayed with DDT, then other animals eat them, then yet other animals eat those. DDT absorbs into fatty tissues and can persist without being removed. \n\n Despite claims about thinning eggshells in birds, no scientific study has shown DDT to harm any animal other than insects evan at very high doses.
554598
Pollution and DDT can cause poor environments.  All the oil and logging industries causes detriment to fishing of salmon for eagles.  As civilization expands their habitat shrinks.
854031
"Methyl parathion interferes with the normal way that the nerves and brain function. Exposure to very high levels of methyl parathion for a short period in air or water may cause death, loss of consciousness, dizziness, confusion, headaches, difficult breathing, chest tightness, wheezing, vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, tremors, blurred vision, and sweating. Some people who have been exposed to substances similar to methyl parathion have experienced changes in mental state that lasted several months after exposure to high levels of these substances ended. If people are exposed to levels of methyl parathion below those that affect nerve function, few or no health problems seem to occur. There is no evidence that methyl parathion causes birth defects in humans or affects the ability of humans to produce children. There is also no proof that methyl parathion causes cancer in people who are regularly exposed, such as farmers and pesticide applicators".
1327
There is this really great book called EXTINCTION by the Ehrlichs(?)...which starts out with a beautiful analogy about the environment. It starts off with this guy who removes rivets (screws) from an airplane wing so that he could sell them for profit. Each rivet/screw represents a unique species that plays an important role in our ecosystem. The loss of each one has an adverse effect on the whole structure. It is true that such effects may or may not have an immediate recognizable effect on us but that does not mean that it is not happening. Also, we humans, have proven that we are really self centered that we do not recognize the damage that we are doing unless it hits us in the face. There are countless examples of chain reactions in the ecosystem due to a loss of an integral species. For example, (although I am no longer certain about the details) due to the misuse of a pesticide by farmers in rural Peru, an outbreak of more resistant  pests evolved. The farmers in reaction started to use more pesticides which affected the other species that naturally feed on and control these pests. The situation got so bad that it escalated to such an extent that cats which controlled the rat population died out because they got the higher dose of the poisonous pesticide in their system. Finally, (believe it or not) they had to fly cats to the area and dropped them from helicopters...thus it did rain cats that day in Peru.
803555
If you spray a plague of locusts, comprising millions of them, with insecticide, most of them will die. Some of them won't - lets say 1%. Of that 1% some didn't die because they may not have had exposure to the insecticide. They will most likely die with the next spraying. Some of that 1%, however, will happen to have an inate resistance to the insecticide, and they will pass it onto some of their offspring. So next year, the farmer will spray, and perhaps 10% of the locusts will survive, so the following year the farmer increases the strength of the insecticide, and only 1% survive, and so on, over many years, gradually the resistance grows, to a level that the insecticide needs to be at a level where it is toxic not only to locusts but to humans, and so has become useless.\n\nAs for bacteria, much antibiotic resistance is plasmid mediated. The plasmid is a small ring of genetic material within many bacteria, it is used to transfer genetic material between bacteria, not just of the same species, but different species of bacteria. The resistance mechanism to antibiotics is similar to the locust example, but it can be transferred to other bacterial species as well, via the plasmid. \nThe good news with antibiotic resistance is that it requires energy to maintain genetic code within the plasmid. If we stop using a particular antibiotic, then having that genetic code within the plasmid will not be an advantage to survival, in fact it may be a hindrance. Eventually it will be lost, and the antibiotic will become potent again. This is of course a simplistic example, but the basics are there.
343392
http://www.nap.edu/books/0309075521/html/146.html\n\nVeterans and Agent Orange: Update 2000 (2001)\nInstitute of Medicine (IOM)\n\n\nSchildt et al. (1999) conducted a case-control study in Sweden investigating the risk of oral cancer from occupational exposures and particular occupations. The cases consisted of all histopathologically verified squamous cell oral cancer cases in the Cancer Register for four counties in Sweden. A total of 410 cases out of 419 identified individuals were used. One control was matched for each case on the basis of age, sex, county of residence, and age at death if the case was deceased. Questionnaires were sent to all living subjects and next of kin for