Alfred H. Baumhover Papers

Alfred H. Baumhover (b. 1921), an entomologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is known for his contributions to the screwworm eradication programs of the 1950s and 1960s. He began his career in 1949 in the USDA Grasshopper Control Division and worked with Raymond Bushland in Texas studying agricultural pests. Bushland and Edward F. Knipling were preparing to begin field experimentation on their sterile insect technique for biological control of screwworm infestation. Baumhover became the lead field agent of these experiments. In 1954, he led the program in Curacao that eradicated screwworms from the island. For this work, he was knighted by Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. Baumhover also worked with the screwworm eradication programs in the Southeast and Southwest United States. Although he continued to advise the screwworm program throughout his career, Baumhover worked primarily with tobacco insect research from 1963 until his retirement.

Alfred H. Baumhover was born on June 12, 1921, and raised on the family farm in Carroll, Iowa. At the age of 16, he assumed the responsibility of running the farm after his father suffered an accident. Nevertheless, Baumhover pursued his education and received his bachelor of science from Iowa State College in 1949.

Upon graduation, Baumhover went to work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). He spent two years as the area supervisor of the USDA Grasshopper Control Division in Great Falls, Montana. In 1951, his position was abolished due to the commercial availability of insecticides for grasshoppers. Baumhover chose to join Raymond C. Bushland and work on farm pests at the USDA's new laboratory in Kerrville, Texas.

Baumhover arrived when the finishing touches were being completed on Edward Fred Knipling's Sterilized Insect Technique (SIT), an autocidal theory of total insect population management, to be tested on the screwworm. The screwworm is a notorious flesh eating parasite of warm blooded mammals. Baumhover became the lead field agent for the experimental efforts to control the screwworm. His base of operations was transferred from Texas to Florida. From there, he worked on the Sanibel Island, Florida, tests and was selected to lead the landmark Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, Experiment in 1954, which proved the efficacy of SIT. For his part in the eradication of screwworms on Curacao, Baumhover was conferred knighthood in the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1955 by Queen Juliana of the Netherlands.

After Curacao, Baumhover returned to Florida to participate in the successful screwworm eradication efforts there and across the Southeast United States. By 1959, screwworms had been eradicated from that region. He then went to Texas to participate in the even more daunting anti-screwworm campaign in the Southwest United States. Even though the Southwest was declared screwworm free in 1966, it was not until 1982 that eradication truly occurred. In 1964, Baumhover accepted a position with the USDA's Tobacco Insects Investigations and continued there until his retirement to Minnesota on February 4, 1984. Throughout his tenure with the Tobacco Insects Investigations, Baumhover continued to serve as a consultant for the screwworm eradication campaign.