THE RIVAL WORLD

This Shell film, "The Rival World," (1955) is a dramatic and comprehensive look at the global conflict between humans and insects, highlighting the insects' ancient history, vast numbers, biological power, and the threat they pose to human life, health, and agriculture. Directed by Bert Haanstra and produced by Stuart Legg.

0:00 The omnipresence of insects—biting, sucking, and chewing in the air, on the ground, and in the water. Long before man, the insects were established. There are now some 2,000 million men, but there are as many insects per square mile of the earth.
2:06: Throughout history, insects have left their mark on human living, from the royal bee symbol of the kings of lower Egypt (Carved in the massive stone of Carnac) to winged shapes found in Baltic amber (dating back 20 million years).
2:30: The insect orders multiply through powers of reproduction "beyond belief." In just 10 short generations, a single green fly can give birth to young outweighing the population of China. The film illustrates the life cycle: eggs to larvae (maggots or caterpillars), to pupa (shell or cocoon), producing the crawling, flying, and swimming myriads of the adult insect world.
3:25: Man has come to terms with some insects. The silkworm has been a treasured secret and source of industry for 4,000 years. We also depend on bees, wasps, and butterflies for pollination. Without them, there would be little to eat besides cereals and nuts.
4:44: Insects' overwhelming numbers. Four-fifths of all animal life is insect life. Over one million different species have been identified. They communicate, are conscious of position, and have complex behavior patterns, often making them man's equal, even if governed by blind instinct.
5:58: Insects as carriers of disease:the tsetse fly, the tiny Simulium fly, Culicine mosquito, Anopheline mosquito and malaria.
7:54: World Health Organization (WHO) makes it clear that insects are the cause of one-half of all human deaths, sickness, deformity, and waste.
8:38: Halting the Anopheline mosquito in areas of the East costs millions, and any letup means malaria is back. Containing the tsetse fly in Africa requires almost a state of siege, cordoning off districts and controlling movement, as the fly’s parasite is carried by wild game and transmitted to cattle.
9:45: Insects destroy property (like termites chewing wooden houses) and food. They are present wherever man grows and stores crops, stealing a third of everything produced.
11:04: In the natural state, the "robbers tend to keep each other down." Big thieves eat little thieves and are devoured by birds and reptiles. Even some plants are traps.
11:59: Cultivation upsets nature's balance. Clearing land creates an "ideal place for pests to breed and feed."
13:06: The locust is highlighted as the "eighth plague of Egypt, and a greater plague today."
14:50: The first attack against locusts is with poisoned bait (a powerful insecticide mixed with bran) spread along the front of the advancing armies. This slaughters millions, but millions more are behind. They then muster their strength, shedding skins and emerging as winged adults with jaws to devastate crops.
15:59: The battle moves to the air, targeting a swarm 23 miles long and 5 miles deep. Pilots attack with liquid contact poisoning, acknowledging that having to spray from the air is already an admission of failure.
19:53: Bible's description of the plague: "For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was dark. And they did eat every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees. And there remained not any green thing."
21:20: Through the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), there is a chance to wage war on a concerted scale. New weapons include biological control. In Kenya, where the coffee crop was attacked by the mealy bug, ladybirds of a special kind were bred and released to eat the bugs, averting a catastrophe.
22:54 Man's greatest ally is the field of chemistry. Scientists in Shell laboratories work on petrochemicals—oils, dusts, and liquids with greater power to kill. These are designed to be deadly to the insect enemy, yet harmless to man, his crops, and cattle. It is kill or be killed.
24:42 The sobering question of whether the future belongs to man or the rival world of insects, which are striking us down in pain and death, destroying possessions, and devouring sorely needed food.