Gadsden County Times

D-D-T Comes to Florida Civilians

A news bulletin from the Florida State Board of Health contains the interesting news that a supply—a small one, but still a supply—of the far famed DDT insecticide has been made available for use in Florida. We mean for use in civilian homes.

This is good news in view of the undeniable fact that Florida has too much malaria normally, and the situation is made more grave through the danger of other and more virulent types of the disease being brought back by our boys returning from the far corners of the earth.

According to the bulletin, only a limited amount of the magic insecticide is available at this time, and will be used according to plans formulated by the U. S. Public Health Service working in conjunction with the State's Bureau of Malaria Control. The present program is to start at once in Citrus County, and from there northward along the "limestone belt." All this probably means it will be some time before any of this new insecticide is used in Gadsden County, if the current supply stretches that far.

The Board of Health states that in some cases entire counties will receive the DDT service, while in others, only those homes in heavily breeding sections will be sprayed. They say that more counties will be included in the program as soon as sufficient supplies are released by the WPB.

It is stressed that DDT is not instantaneous in its destruction of insects, nor is it a repellant. It is sprayed on the walls in the form of a liquid and the mosquitoes must pick up the microscopic crystals on their feet for it to be effective. It is not absorbed from the air, nor does it offer a permanent protection. However, it is believed to be strong enough to kill mosquitoes, silver fish, moths, roaches, fleas, bedbugs and crickets for as long as three or four months after it is applied to the walls.

The State Board points out that DDT is not a substitute for screening, and says it does not have any particular advantage over a well-screened house. They warn that in order to spread the present supply as far as possible, that many screened houses may be by-passed in the spraying program now being initiated.

We are not proud of the distinction that Gadsden County had of being one of the black spots on the malarial map. However, if it is still true that we have one of the highest malaria rates, we trust the Health Unit will call this to the attention of the State Board of Health and the U. S. Public Health Service, to the end that we may have the benefit of this DDT spraying program.