Modernized Society & Allergies to Arthropods: Risks and Challenges to Entomologists

The pest control operator was just completing the third treatment in three weeks at a suburban Atlanta home in September 1983. On arrival, he had noticed that the renter, a thirty-year-old male, was sniffling and sneezing from an apparent head cold. He completed his work and departed by 10:30 in the morning. Just before noon, the renter was in the midst of a severe asthmatic episode; his wife called for medical assistance. Emergency medical technicians arrived within minutes and found him conscious but in respiratory distress. He was taken to the community hospital where, despite exhaustive efforts, doctors were unable to resuscitate him. At 1:20 that afternoon he was pronounced dead.