Insects

This chapter briefly discusses major themes in historical studies of insects (pesticides, non-chemical control, and the “insect humanities”) before offering a case study of how insect control influenced and connected agricultural and health organisations. Specifically, it traces the history of “integrated control” of insects in the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) from the 1960s to the 2000s. In the 1960s, entomologists argued that long-term suppression of insect populations could only be achieved if pesticide use was integrated with biological control agents and environmental management. This approach, which was variously known as “integrated vector control” or “integrated pest management”, rose to prominence in both the FAO and WHO because of shared concerns over insecticide resistance and environmental pollution. Although both organisations initially presented integrated control as a top-down alternative to pesticides in the 1960s, both organisations also re-envisioned it as a bottom-up, community-based intervention in the 1980s and 1990s. Tracing these overlapping trajectories situates insect control within broader histories of health and environment and reminds us that agriculture and public health shared important concerns, concepts, and chronologies throughout the twentieth century.