Fluctuations in Populations of Certain Aquatic Insects Following Application of Aldrin Granules to Sugar Creek, Iroquois County, Illinois1

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Abstract
An opportunity to study the effects of aldrin on a small Midwestern stream occurred in November 1960, when a block of approximately 23, 000 acres of farmland near Milford in Iroquois Country, Illinois, was treated with aldrin at a dosage of 20 lb of 10% granules/acre. A 6-mile-long segment of Sugar Creek flowing through the area was subjected to contamination during aerial application of the granules. The stream was sampled for some species of Ephemeroptera. Triehoptera, Elmidae (Coleoptera), and Chironomidae (Diptera) up to 19 months after treatment. Of the 4 aquatic taxa studied, only 1, Elmidae, appeared unaffected by the treatment. Species of Ephemeroptera were severely reduced. The 2 remaining taxa, Trichoptera and Chironomidae, increased the summer following treatment but by the second spring after treatment populations of both taxa were similar in treated and untreated portions of Sugar Creek. A great number of fish were killed following application of the insecticide but a collection made 7 months later showed this stream contained a diversity of species and sizes of fish. The results of this study indicate that a single application of 2 lb of aldrin/acre severely reduced numbers of aquatic insects and fish, but their recovery was rapid and the treatment probably caused no permanent damage to fish and most stream invertebrates.

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