Bedbugs. No, I Don’t Have Them.
But I guess everyone in the city will soon have them? Or so it seems. They’re in the movie theaters, Times Square.
My super-brief wikipedia reading binge implies that there once was a big bed bug problem, but the use of DDT after World War II wiped them out. Then DDT was banned in 1972 (a reaction to the publication of Silent Spring in 1962, and the effect DDT was having on the environment including the thinning of egg shells). And so now they’re back.
Why did it take almost 30 years since banning DDT for them to come back? Could we just real quick use DDT for a year and get rid of them again and then lay off the DDT? [...]