In Borneo there was a outbreak of a terrible disease coming from mosquitos. The US decided to pitch in by spraying DDT all over the place. The DDT killed the mosquitos, but it also killed the parasitic wasps that kill the roof-eating caterpillars. You can see what happened next. The DDT also made all the geckos sick. The cats ate the geckos and died so the rat population skyrocketed. The rats brought two more diseases. The US decided to make it up with Borneo by parachuting cats into the country.
In class we were assigned to make a picture describing the event. Naomi and I made a picture that showed the events of the DDT in a chain. We also drew the fallen roofs and the millions of rats.
What the US do to help kill the caterpillars?
Why didn’t the geckos die from being sick?
Why didn’t the DDT effect the caterpillars?
These are good questions. I think the geckos didn’t have enough of the poison in them. Remember when we talked about bioaccumulation? The concentration of the poison gets bigger as it travels up the food chain.