THE PEST CONTROL INDUSTRY AND THE CHALLENGES AHEAD

The pest control industry, whether it be governmental, urban, aerial, lawn and turf, trees, or whatever, has many of the same problems. Controllers of vertebrate or invertebrate pests, or plant pests, have much in common. Environmental¬ists talk of the balance of nature, usually overlooking the fact that nature is more often out of balance than in balance. Nature is cruel in its control of plant and animal species whenever there is not enough food to go around or enough of a suitable habitat in which to live. Nature does not conserve things as they are but, rather, changes them and frequently in violent ways. Earthquakes, forest fires, droughts, and other catastrophes may wipe out whole populations-and life sur¬vives and thrives in spite of this. Kurt Vonnegut said in a recent issue of Time magazine, If people think nature is their friend, they sure don\u27t need an enemy. Environmentalists sometimes seem to forget that we are as much a part of the ecology as are the plants and the animals. Our environment is a precious thing; we need to control and change it if necessary for our survival while retaining its necessary and better features