insecticides

insecticide is a subtance that kills insect. insecticides are sometimes called pesticides. farmers and gardeners usually use insecticides to protect plants and animals. apple trees must be sprayed, or many of the apples will become "wormy" with moth larvae (young). many livestock owners spray their livestock or dip them in an insecticide solution to protect them from flies, lice, mites, and ticks. these pests spread such diseases and cattle fever and sheep scab. diseases such as malaria and thypus can be controlled by using insecticides to treat the breeding places of the insect that spread the diseases.

agricultural pesticides prevent a monetary loss of about 9 bilion each year in the U.S. for every 1 invested in pesticides, the american.

farmer gets about 4 in return. these benefits, however, must be weighed againts the costs to society of using pesticides, an seen in the banning of ethylene dobromide in the early 1980s. these costs include human poisonings, and the contamination of livestock product. the environmental and sosial costs of pesticide use in the U.S. have been estimated to be at least 1 bilion each year. thus, although pesticides are valuable for agriculture, they also can cause serious harm.