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Abstract

Two ”mega-experiments,” the Pilot Boll Weevil Eradication Experiment (PBWEE) and the Huffaker Project, dominated the politics of entomological research during the 1970s. Both were subject to internal strife and external criticisms, and both weathered the storms to find renewal in the form of new projects. Traumas within the PBWEE were particularly severe, because the results and their significance were subject to radically different interpretations. Evaluation of the PBWEE divided those with primary allegiance to total population management (TPM) against those aligned with integrated pest management (IPM) and thus led to a sharpening of the distinctions between the two approaches to insect control. Individual entomologists were caught in maelstroms of disputes that required them to reexamine their own positions on research directions. It had been possible before the PBWEE to entertain both IPM and TPM as guides to experimentation. After the PBWEE, life in the gray area between IPM and TPM became more difficult but not impossible.

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Reference Notes

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Perkins, J.H. (1982). Traumas. In: Insects, Experts, and the Insecticide Crisis. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-3998-4_5

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