To Make a Spotless Orange

Book excerpt: To Make A Spotless Orange is the story of science with a mission: the use of organisms to attack pests. Few states showed very little interest after the first commercial pesticides appeared in the late nineteenth century. In california alone, entomologists persevered in developing both the theory and practice of biological control. These entomologists were neither environmentalists nor health crusaders, but scientist s who believed that their method would be the cheapest and most effective in the long run.