Being a child of the 60's we rode our Bicycles through the "fog" from the Spray Trucks that would drive up and down the Streets spraying for mosquitos....the conspiracy theorist in me says it was HIGHLY effective in mosquitos, which are the number one disease vectors causing high levels of mortality around the World: Kill the bugs means not as much disease reducing populations, and well we just can't have that.Yes, and it killed off more than insects, arachnids and many other invertebrates.
But, it was *very* good at what it did, just a little bit too indiscriminate.
But, the point was it was very safe for mammals, so showing spraying the child with it as a "bad idea" was a bit of fear mongering.
We absolutely should still be using it, just not as indiscriminately. Would be fantastic to use in residential areas where you *do* want to kill everything that crawls, and you don't have Eagles and other raptors running around.
Just like banning R12 was stupid. You'll save the ozone layer you just needed to stop using it as aerosol propellant. No need to take it out of every refrigeration system in the world.
When it's the 1980s, the hairspray from one high-school prom released more R12 than every refrigerator in the town did in their entire lifetime.
Come to think of it, I don't remember anyone having Head Lice, or a big problem with other insects, and Mister, Florida HAS BUGS!