Widely Used Weedkiller Turns Male Frogs Into Females

I always tell my students to get acquainted with allelopathy ( see my previous comments of 2010). Plant extracts will be the future to replace pesticides. I am conducting some short experiments to compare the efficacy of herbicides and Eucalyptus leaf extracts.I encourage Weed Scientists to shift their interests to allelopathy. Natural compounds ( plant- made chemicals) are friends to the environment and are bad enemies to pests.

• December 5
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Yes Loesje, you can go back to nature, and use organic agriculture to produce your apples and potatoes.The problem is organic agric. is very limited, and thanks for the chemicals, which are produced by the wise guys. We know for sure we "pump" hundreds of thousands of pesticides to kill pests, which include rats, roaches, and weeds, but not "frogies"!! Well, herbicides ( atrazine is one of them) are useful when applied carefully.Weeds are controlled by atrazine and others to harvest high yield of wheat, onions, eggplants, and cherry, and some other goodies, which we would like to see in our birthday cakes.Should we put the blame on atrazine, or should it be on our "eager" farmers? When we spray atrazine, we have to be sure that this chemical does not contaminate the wilderness. Unfortunately, some farmers, however, may " play a rough game" and the redult is the escape of few drops of atrazine from the sprayed area to the neighbors territory, which happen to be a territory of male frogies.

• December 5
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Can we live without chemicals or pesticides? If the ground and water are being contaminant and the atrazine can turn male frogs into females and how about for the humans?
This is weird and please go back to the nature.

• December 1
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Thanks for the article.

• October 11
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thanks, we have to question the amount of fertilizer we use

• June 2
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Wow, if this chemical changes male frogs into female frogs, does it mean we might have a shortage of baby frogs?

• April 24
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Thanks for the article. Very interesting!

• January 29
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How bad is our judgment against atrazine? As agriculturists, we love atrazine for its high efficacy against weeds in corn fields and some other crops. Then again, we love and perhaps adore fogys, whether they were males of females. They provide colorful life around the ponds and streams of fresh water. They also make a pleasant "crocking" !!!! Nevertheless, let us stop for a minute and think scientifically. Does really sex transformation occur whenever a male frog gets exposed to atrazine? To answer this question, one should change his career and his profession and become a toxicologist. Well, I am not a toxi, but sure like to conduct an experiment with good statistical lay out using 1000 male frogs as experimental units and dose them with different conc. of atrazine. Watch and score the results. What is the probability of converting all males or half of them to females. I also like to set up the same test on females. They may turn out males ( reversed mechanism ) !! If this would happen, then we are in a state of equilibrium!!!!!!!.

• July 25
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Most interesting and almost seems to be unbelievable! Will have to do more of my own reading on this......thank you!

• July 3
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continue...Experiments, such as the effect of a certain pesticide on the respiratory and genital systems of Euglena! And reproduction of animals and DNA conformation and its nucleotide composition; and cell structure and elongation of some growing parts of a louse for example. We can go on and dictate so many interesting researches to be run by pesticide people. Or should we just focus on all kinds of experimentation related to sexual make up of frogys. Well, frogys are not humans, so let us think of diverting research on gals and guys and see how atrazine will function in our genital system.
Basic producers may have some comments on this, and they may say this is weird! Well , its; but can a producer of atrazine tell us how the hick an innocent frogy becomes a victim of your lousy atrazine and loses its male chauvinism and turn into a good looking female frogy ? AGAIN, WAKE EPA.

• June 16
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