Running head: IS THERE A BETTER WAY TO KILL BUGS?

Is There a Better Way to Kill Bugs Without

Harming the Environment?

Katherine Romero

Arizona State University

IS THERE A BETTER WAY TO KILL BUGS?

Is There a Better Way to Kill Bugs Without

Harming the Environment?

Have you ever wondered if the bug spray you use on your plants has more side effects

than you thought? These bug sprays, or pesticides, might actually be killing more than just bugs.

These poisonous chemicals could harm our pets, the environment, and even our own health.

Could there be ways to naturally control the pests that are ruining our plants? Could these natural

methods work just as well as the bug sprays?

In 2015, a scientist named Reynaldo De la Cruz Quiroz along with others focused on

using bug sprays made from natural ingredients instead of using chemically-made bug sprays

(De la Cruz Quiroz et al., 2015). Their research showed that using naturally-made pesticide

works just as well as the chemically-made one. They focused on researching sprays that used

plant wastes in a process called fermentation. Fermentation allows a substance to be broken

down by bacteria, and other microorganisms. This method then could be useful when getting rid

of some pests by breaking them down without directly harming the environment because it is a

natural process.

Although the previous example said that natural bug sprays are not as dangerous as

chemical ones, a scientist named Dorea Reeser (2013) says that there are a lot of wrong ideas

between chemical bug sprays, and natural bug sprays. She says that just because synthetic,

meaning man-made, chemicals are made in a lab, it does not make them more dangerous than

other natural chemicals. An example of a natural chemical that is more poisonous than a man-

made one is called botulinum. Although it is a natural chemical, it can cause someone to be

paralyzed or even die. According to another website called Modern Pest Services (2017),
IS THERE A BETTER WAY TO KILL BUGS?

nicotine, the chemical that is in cigarettes, is also very dangerous and deadly in its natural form.

This could be very harmful to pets or even children playing in the yard. Even though chemical

bug sprays might seem more dangerous, the company states that many these sprays are mostly

designed to kill certain bugs. It is then very important to read which bug spray you need to get

rid if the bugs that are most present in your yard. The same website also says that even though

both natural methods and bug sprays can get rid of bugs, natural sprays might take longer to

work and needs to be reapplied many times.

Another website called Compound Chem (2014) says that many natural products have

many chemicals in them already that could be dangerous, but they are not actually poisonous

because the amount of harmful chemicals in something matters. The more of the chemical

component it has, then the more dangerous it can be (see picture below). The picture says that

the chemical being present in food will not actually make it dangerous, but the amount of

chemical it has can make the food more poisonous and dangerous for our health.

Picture 1: Picture showing that various types of natural foods already have chemicals that could be toxic to humans. From “Natural vs. Man-
Made Chemicals – Dispelling Misconceptions” (2014), Compound Interest. Retrieved from
https://www.compoundchem.com/2014/05/19/natural-vs-man-made-chemicals-dispelling-misconceptions/
IS THERE A BETTER WAY TO KILL BUGS?

So what does all of this information mean? Which is better, chemical bug sprays or

natural bug sprays? The answer is not one or the other. Before using either product, we must

research and see how much toxicity (or how poisonous, or harmful) the product has in total.

Natural products have their own levels of harmfulness. It does not matter if a certain chemical is

present. It is more important to check how much of the chemical it has that could make it more

poisonous than it would be if it less. It also depends on what you want and if you are willing to

wait a bit longer for natural chemicals to do their work.

IS THERE A BETTER WAY TO KILL BUGS?

References

De la Cruz Quiroz, R., Roussos, S., Hernández, D., Rodríguez, R., Castillo, F., & Aguilar, C.

(2015). Challenges and opportunities of the bio-pesticides production by solid-state

fermentation: Filamentous fungi as a model. Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, 35(3),

326-333. doi:10.3109/07388551.2013.857292

Natural pesticides: Using organic vs. synthetic pest control. (2017). Retrieved from

https://www.modernpest.com/blog/what-are-natural-pesticides/

Natural vs. man-made chemicals – Dispelling misconceptions. (2014). Retrieved from

https://www.compoundchem.com/2014/05/19/natural-vs-man-made-chemicals-

dispelling-misconceptions/

Reeser, D. (2013). Natural versus synthetic chemicals is a gray matter. Retrieved from

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/natural-vs-synthetic-chemicals-is-a-gray-

matter/