Phase in pest management

Date

Discovery or event

400 million B.C.

First terrestrial  plants

Setting the stage

350 million B.C.

First Insects

250,000 B.C.

Appearance of Homo sapiens

8,000 B.C.

Beginnings of agriculture

4,700 B.C.

Silkworm culture in China

2,500 B.C.

First records of insecticides (the Sumerians use sulphur compounds to control insects and mites)

1,500 B.C.

First descriptions of cultural controls, especially manipulation of planting dates

1,200 B.C.

Botanical insecticides are used for seed treatments and as fungicides in China. The Chinese also use mercury and arsenical compounds to control body lice

1,000 B.C.

Homer refers to the use of sulfur in fumigation and other forms of pest control

470 B.C.

Democritus, cited by Pliny, controls a blight by sprinkling plants with amurca (liquid waste remaining after olive oil is produced). Frequently sited thereafter into the 16th century.

370-286 B.C.

The Greek philosopher Theophrastus studies and writes about plant diseases of trees, cereals, and legumes.

Early interactions with pests

324 B.C.

Chinese introduce ants (Acephali amaragina) in citrus trees to manage caterpillars and large boring insects.

200 B.C.

Cato the Censor, a Roman, advocates oil sprays for pest control.

13 B.C.

First rat-proof granary is constructed by Marcus Pollio, a Roman architect.

300 A.D.

First recorded use of biological controls in citrus orchards to control caterpillar and beetle pests in China. Colonies of the predatory ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) are set up in citrus groves with bamboo bridges, so they could move between trees.

400 A.D.

Ko Hung a Chinese alchemist, recommends a root application of white arsenic when transplanting rice to protect against insect pests.

449 A.D.

Fall of Rome marks period of very few advances in pest control in western Europe.

Dark ages in western Europe

Golden age of Islam

1000-1300 A.D.

Date growers in Arabia seasonally transport predatory ants from nearby mountains to oases to control phytophagous ants that attack date palm. Also at this time, weeds controllled by mechanical removal with a hoe, crop rotations, and cultivation.

1100-1200 A.D.

Ibn Al-Awam produces his classic book on agriculture, containing a wealth of information on pest management

1457

Fall of Constantinople; end of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine)

Beginning of the European rennaisance in Italy.

1476

In Berne, Switzerland cutworms are taken to court, pronounced guilty, excommunicated by the Archbishop, then banished.

1485

The High Vicar of Valence commands caterpillars to appear before him. He gives them a defense council and finally condemns them to leave the area.

1650-1780

Burgeoning of insect descriptions (after Linnaeus) and biological discoveries in Renaissance

The age of enlightenment

1732

Farmers first begin to grow crops in rows to facilitate weed removal

1763

Linnaeus publishes a prize-winning essay that suggests using mechanical and biological control to manage orchard caterpillars.

1750-1880

Agricultural revolution in Europe. Crop protection becomes more extensive and international trade promotes the discovery of the botanical insecticides pyrethrum and derris

Early 1800s

Appearance of first books and papers devoted entirely to pest control

1840s

Potato blight (Phytophthora infestans) outbreak in Ireland, England, and Belgium, leading to widespread famine in Ireland (where British policies had forced the Irish to rely on one crop). http://faculty.vassar.edu/%7Esttaylor/FAMINE/

1870-1890

Grape phylloxera and powdery mildew controlled in French wine country through the introduction of Bordeaux mixture, Paris Green, use of resistant root stocks, and grafting. http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2600.html; http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r302300811.html; http://www.pestmanagement.co.uk/culture/history.html)

1861

Disproval of spontaneous generation theory by Louis Pasteur: http://www.top-biography.com/9029-Louis%20Pasteur ).

1876

Koch demonstrates the germ theory using Bacillus anthracis,  the causal agent of anthrax, by transferring blood contaminated with B. anthracis from infected animals to healthy animals and causing anthrax symptoms: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/b.gardner/Koch.htm

1880

First commercial pesticide spraying machine

Age of diverse discoveries

1888

First major biological importation success (vedalia beetle for control of cottony cushion scale) http://www.calacademy.org/research/library/special/bios/Koebele.htm

1890s       

Introduction of lead arsenate for insect control

1896

Recognition of arthropods as vectors of human disease

1896

First selective herbicide (iron sulfate) http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0823452.html

1901

First successful biological control of a weed (lantana in Hawaii) http://www.hawaiiag.org/hdoa/pi_ppc_biostat.htm  and http://www.hear.org/pier3/lacam.htm

1899-1909

Development of strains of cotton, cowpeas, and watermelon resistant to Fusarium wilt (first breeding program) http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/timeline/comp.htm

1908

First case of resistance to a pesticide (San Jose scale resistance to lime sulfur) http://www.ento.vt.edu/Fruitfiles/SJS.html

1912

U.S. Plant Quarantine Act

1915

Control of disease-vectoring mosquitoes enabled the completion of Panama canal

1921

First aircraft spray (in Ohio for catalpa sphinx)

1929

First area-wide eradication of an insect pest (Mediterranean fruit fly in Florida)

1930s

Introduction of synthetic organic compounds for plant pathogen control

1939

Recognition of insecticidal properties of DDT (http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/mom/ddt/ddt.html )

1940

Use of milky disease to control Japanese beetle (first successful direct use of an insect pathogen for control)

1940s

Organophosphates developed in Germany, carbamates in Switzerland

1942

First successful breeding program for insect pest resistance in crop plants (release of wheat strain resistant to Hessian fly)

The chemical age

1944

First hormone-based herbicide (2,4-D)

1946

First report of insect resistance to DDT (housefly in Sweden)

1948

Muller wins Nobel prize for discovery of DDT

1950s-1970s

Widespread development of resistance to DDT and other pesticides

1950s

First applications of systems analysis to crop pest control

1958

Delaney Clause of the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act (set zero tolerance for carcinogens)

1959

Introduction of concepts of economic thresholds, economic injury levels, and integrated control

1960

First insect sex pheromone isolated, identified, and synthesized (gypsy moth)

1960

First Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) product registered

1962

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

1969

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

1972

Banning of DDT in the United States

The environmental age

Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) (sets standards for pesticide labeling)

1973

Endangered Species Act

1974

Establishment of the EPA

1977

First registration of a pheromone

1979

The bacterium, Agrobacterium radiobacter, is registered to control crown gall disease.

1983

First successful transfer of a gene from one species to another

1993

The fungus Gliocladium virens registered to control Pythium and Rhizoctonia.

1994

Regulatory approval of transgenic virus-tolerant squash, herbicide-tolerant soyabeans and cotton.

1996

Food Quality Protection Act (replaces "zero tolerance" of Delaney clause with "reasonable certainty" clause)

First transgenic Bt toxin-producing crops in the USA.