Do You Remember…DDT?
Woman in the Middle | February 25, 2015As we clean out the accumulation of over 50 years at Mom-in-Law’s house, I promised to bring you memories of times past. This time I bring you the gallon can of Black Flag with DDT!
If you look closely, you can see right under the black flag the phrase “Contains DDT.” Do you remember DDT? While DDT was first created in a laboratory somewhere in 1874, its usefulness as an insecticide was discovered in 1939. Heck, the fellow who discovered that DDT could kill bugs with abandon even got a Nobel Prize for his work. Soon, humankind was happily spraying DDT everywhere, especially here in the United States.
There was just one small problem. With DDT out in the ecosystem, it was getting into birds. The chemical caused, among other things, the eggshells of these birds to thin and so the eggs would crush before the babies could mature inside the eggs. This resulted in the Bald Eagle and Peregrine Falcon populations almost being wiped out in the continental United States. Then came Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring” in 1962, which detailed the environmental effects of the mass spraying of pesticides. DDT was banned in the U.S. in 1972.
Hubby and I are old enough to remember all this so we weren’t too excited by this find. On a side note, Youngest Daughter had to read “Silent Spring” in high school. When I told her we found DDT she was quite distressed! After taking the photo of the can, just for our amusement, and making a few jokes about keeping it because we knew it would REALLY work against any bugs we encountered, we took it and many other fine chemicals to our local household hazardous waste drop off facility. There the workers also joked that we should keep it because it would REALLY work, but we declined. After all, the can says it “kills fast!”
You just never know what you might find in an old house!
The problem is not only did it have effects on insects but on people too. Better to live with the bugs. When I cleaned out my mother’s house many years ago, I found multiple containers of lead paint which had been banned for years. I am sure if someone would go through my stuff they would be appalled at the stuff I have kept that is no longer useful and may even be harmful. Guess I should do that this spring.
Since we moved four years ago we got rid of some old stuff like that. But when you don’t move, it is easy to let old chemicals and such build up. Luckily, we don’t really have that many bugs around here. No real need for the DDT!
I remember it and happy we have come to our senses although man is guilty of many such atrocities on this earth. Hoping our children do a better job
Oh my. That reminds me of when I worked at the Chino library back in 1979. I was weeding the gardening section & was appalled to find books recommending DDT to get rid of those nasty pests. Needless to say, those books were discarded.
Since by then it had been banned in the U.S. for seven years, I think that was a good idea to get rid of those books LOL!
Wow! A deadly antique. I wonder what other treasures turned up.
No I don’t remember this but when I was a child I didn’t think or take notice of many things at all
You may not have used it as much in Australia.
I don’t think we need to get rid of bugs badly enough to use DDT. As a matter of fact, there’s a yogurt place called Brain Freeze that sells candy and snacks with bugs in them. Yes! You can eat spicy worms and ants as well as suck on lollipops with scorpions in them. So don’t kill the bugs, EAT THEM!!