Category Archives: DDT

I loved writing these posts! It was an indulgence. The last post should have been about Steelman et al., 2008 which I only found late last year — because it shows DDT LC50s for bed bugs from poultry facilities were through the roof. Quote: “High levels of resistance to DDT, effectively acting as 99% exposure, caused only 20% mortality after 96 h of continuous exposure.” This paper is interesting for other reasons too. Full citation and a brief quote in this Temprid post. [The video clip of Dr. John Osmun and others is no longer available.]

“so convenient, so safe because the DDT is fixed to the paper”

Posted on January 25, 2010 by Renee Corea

Boing Boing has a picture of a “Disney-logoed DDT-impregnated wallpaper for the kids’ room” c. 1947. No. words. Enjoy.

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1960, New Jersey, #4

Posted on June 22, 2009 by Renee Corea

Time to put away the old DDT nostalgia. This should be the last DDT post. I should have ended on the good stuff, but apparently can’t leave well enough alone. Guess what I found, an old top 10 pest list … Continue reading →

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DDT resistance in Belo Horizonte, 1985-1986

Posted on May 7, 2009 by Renee Corea

A DDT study that isn’t 50 years old: Susceptibility levels for the adult bed-bug, Cimex lectularius, in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais – Brazil, to DDT, were determined during the period 1985 to 1986. The test results showed that a 4% … Continue reading →

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New York vs Bed Bugs (1944)

Posted on April 24, 2009 by Renee Corea

“NEW YORK THIS SUMMER HAD PLAGUE OF BEDBUGS,” the St. Petersburg Times, October 10, 1944: New Yorkers suffered not only from heat and humidity this summer—the city had a plague of bedbugs. Congested areas all over the country had the … Continue reading →

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The extravagant optimism of the DDT era

Posted on December 21, 2008 by Renee Corea

We write about DDT altogether too much here, all because once upon a time, all too briefly, it killed bed bugs dead.  The mystique naturally persists. But the LIFE photo archive at Google will not be resisted. Maybe humans will … Continue reading →

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NY-BB

Posted on December 18, 2008 by Renee Corea

A recent article in the Journal of Medical Entomology finds deltamethrin resistance in a New York City bed bug population: The NY-BB population was 264-fold more resistant to 1% deltamethrin in contact bioassay compared with an insecticide-susceptible population collected in … Continue reading →

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“The next day, there were no bed bugs… the soldiers had not been bitten the night before”

Posted on November 4, 2008 by Renee Corea

The documentary The Greatest Generation and the Modern Pesticide Revolution. Dr. John Osmun recalls his service days as the entomologist on post at Camp Gordon in Georgia during WWII. Continue reading →

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DDT resistance: once more, with tables and sources

Posted on May 15, 2008 by Renee Corea

The long history of bed bug resistance to DDT. Continue reading →

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No DDT, thanks, we’re good

Posted on April 12, 2008 by Renee Corea

Something that we want to get out of the way at the outset, though, because it hovers over every news report and clouds every discussion of what we as a society must do about bed bugs, old DDT. Continue reading →

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