• dlatch@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    DDT wreaked absolute havoc on bird of prey populations. A LOT of species were on the verge of extinction due to being at the top of the food pyramid, where the DDT levels of all their prey animals added up. Banning DDT when we did was one of the biggest wins ever in bird protection.

    • thrawn@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Hm yeah, that’s fair. I wonder if limiting it to indoors pests, specifically the big two invasive species, would have prevented that. To my (very limited) knowledge, bed bugs aren’t eaten by many things. Bats? German roaches eat them but we don’t want them either.

      I’m not overly attached to DDT though, a public health program of Alpine spraying indoors would probably do the trick. I doubt anyone has the political capital to get it done, but the return of bed bugs will be disastrous