Question

After World War II, people began living in suburban areas. How might the movement of people from cities to suburbs be related to the development of pesticides by chemists?
Pesticides were needed in urban areas for pests that moved into abandoned apartments, such as ants, bees, and other insects.
Pesticides were used to help convert farmland into lawns and to rid new homes and neighborhoods of insects.
Pesticides were needed to kill foreign species of insects that were carried into the country on the clothing and military equipment of troops returning from war.
Pesticides were developed in suburban factories, so the sale of pesticides was heavily promoted to bring more money to the factories.

Answer 1

Correct answer: Pesticides were used to help convert farmland into lawns and to rid new homes and neighborhoods of insects.

Why: Post–World War II suburban growth created large new markets for lawn and garden care and for household pest control. Chemists adapted and expanded wartime insecticides (e.g., DDT) and developed herbicides/insecticides marketed to homeowners to protect lawns, ornamental plants, and newly built homes from insects and weeds.

Notes on the other choices:
- (1) Urban pest problems in abandoned buildings weren’t the main driver of pesticide development.
- (3) Some pesticides were developed for military use (vector control) and later went civilian, but the subway-to-suburb link in that option is weak.
- (4) Pesticides weren’t specifically developed in “suburban factories” to drive suburban factory profits; the primary link was the new consumer demand from suburban households.