The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-11-04
MANKIND VERSUS INSECTS

Various essays on the conflict be- tween human beings and insects and on the prospect of an eventual mas tery of insects ever man have ap- peared lately at frequent intervals. The writers dwell upon the growing numbers and species of insects and their increasing damage to crops and other items in human economy, to say nothing of the direct menace of insects as carriers of deadly diseases, includ- ing bubonic plague, typhoid fever, malaria, yellow fever, sleeping sick ness and the like. The boil weevil, the army worm, the grain weevil, the bean weevil, the leaf-eating caterpillar, the termite, the cockroach, the moth, the ant, the thrips, the nematode, the aphis, the borer, the codling moth, the curculio, the shuck-worm, the case-bearer and host of others are mentioned as the potential sources of irremediable disaster to the food sup ply of the human race on some dread occasion when all these shall come in ravaging quantities all in one year.
 Of course, nobody denies that these insect enemies are source of great danger and destruction in the aggre- gate and that they have taken incal- culable toll of human life and sub- stance. However, when it comes to the test of ultimate supremacy or ex- tinction, there are many who will put their money on the human race rather than on the insects. Insects, while many of them are highly organized, are not deliberately and consciously organized. They are that way through countless generations of selection, habit, environment and-if MT. Bryan is not in the audience-evolutior They have no conscious purpose or intention of being destructive. On the contrary, they are merely bent on gleaning a living during their brief span of life. If they are de- structive, that is only by-product of their instinct to eat and to build protection for their young.
 {. It is true that insects have multi piled where civilization thrives, but that is merely incidental to the fact that where man is there their natural food is to be found in greatest quantity, and because man, in trans porting wares and plants from land to land and from hemisphere to hem isphere has unwittingly disseminated all kinds of insects throughout the in-- habited areas of earth. Now men are learning not to do this. Quarantincs are established in every civilized coun- try against the introduction of insects that attacks plants or stored provisions, and against carriers of disease. And herein lies the great superiority of man over insect-he consciously sets himself to the task of combating, thwarting and exterminating insects. He can change his habits and his plans to present hostile front to the en- emy; but the insect pursues its unde- viating program which man needs only to study in order to combat and destroy.
 That the threat of the insect has become greater within the past few decades is undeniable; but until the enemy materialized in dangerous form and array there was no enemy. Now that the enemy has taken form and substance, preparations for the defense of mankind are under way. Wherever human science and determination have been applied relentlessly to the war of extermination it has been success ful. Within few more years it is probable that the fight against insects will have reached stage where whole areas will be found to have been com pletely rid of insect hordes that had attained the proportions of a calamity, such as the boil weevil. There is a war between men and insects-a war to the death-but not to the death of man.