Stephanie+Olivia+Jordyn+-Pesticides

Pest- A pest is an organism that attacks food and other organisms. Pesticide- Chemical/medicine used to get rid of pests. Chemical Pesticides- When you use chemicals to get rid of pests. Biological Pesticides- When you rid of pests without using chemicals or any other substance.

Pros and Cons: There are three majors pros for pesticide use. One major good thing that comes from pesticides is that it has saved millions of lives from diseases such as Malaria, Yellow Fever, Sleeping sickness, and Black Plague. The second biggest pro for pesticide use involves money. Pesticide Economy gains an average of 50 million a year. The good thing about it is that 40% of that money is coming from other countries. The third good thing that comes from pesticides is without pesticides an additional 8% of damage would happen to crops. Meaning that in every field 8% less crops would make it out as it does now. There are also three major cons for pesticide use. One major bad thing the comes from pesticide use is that every the number of resisting species evolves more quickly. This means that more and more bugs are being created. The second biggest con for pesticide use is that most chemical pesticides are nonspecific. This means that it really has not target, we don’t know exactly what it can kill. So sometimes Pesticides kill animals and humans. The third bad thing that pesticide use causes is that we still will continue with pests until we find out how to rid them all at once.

Controlling pests: One way you can control pests is by the way design your houses, gardens, lawns, etc. Meaning you do not want holes, cracks, and things such as leaving doors and windows open so that pests can get right in. Also you want to fertilize and water your lawn. You want to do this so your garden/lawn is strong and can fight the pests away without having to use pesticides. Another really obvious way of ridding pests is by eliminating them yourselves. Meaning if you see a bunch of ants you squash them! Also you can wash them away with a water hose or you can trap them and let them go. One other way of controlling pests is by rely on natural enemies to eliminate them. I would not suggest this because if you have pests in your house i doubt you will have many enimies in your house as well to rid of them. If you had pests in a garden it could possibly work.