THOSE who study insects are caught in much the same bind as biomedical researchers, who might want to study the pineal gland or bone growth but end up investigating cancer or heart disease. Entomologists who would love to classify the beetles of the Amazon or learn about stick insect mating strategies are instead likely to spend their lives with apple maggots, boll weevils, gypsy moths or anopheles mosquitoes. There are funds in pests.
But, Gilbert Waldbauer points out, the millions of dollars and thousands of careers devoted to pest insects have not been wasted: the goal may be extermination, but…
