Underwater Flies for Trout: A Comprehensive Guide to Subsurface Forage, Flies, and Tactics Book

James McWilliams explores the never-ending war on bugs waged by Americans. Beginning with "word of mouth" vernacular solutions to pest control, Americans learned to use science (first biology--fail?--and then chemistry) to control and eradicate pesky insects at home and in their fields. The chemical
success of eradication had the unexpected consequence of yielding pesticide-resistant insects. Thus, as Americans sought to control their environments and produce unmolested monocultures undermined their control in ways more extensive than had they not killed pests so extensively. Government-set tolerance levels for pesticide use rather than outright banning them has been the unsatisfactory compromise.

James E. McWilliams is here inspired by the still-revolutionary theories of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. In addition to his chronology of American pest control, he eventually calls for "a more harmonious and rational approach to our relationship with insects, one that does not harm our environment and, consequently, ourselves along the way." Rather than just reduce insects to a nuisance with no place in the world, McWilliams argues fairly convincingly that Americans should reconsider the right bugs have to life: killing them off with reckless abandon has not been beneficial to humans. He sees economci incentives as both possible and more likely to yield success than government regulation.