The Bug Bomb[3] became especially important to the war effort after the Philippines fell in 1942, when it was reported that malaria had played a major part in the defeat of American and British forces.

The disposable spray can was largely undeveloped until Lyle Goodhue devised a practical version and filed for a patent in 1941[9] while working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Goodhue's earliest aerosol propellant idea came to mind when he worked in 1929–1930 as a research chemist on lacquer formulations at the DuPont Chemical laboratories in Parlin, New Jersey.

[10][11] That aerosol spray concept was greatly expanded, written in his lab notebook, and witnessed by his boss, Dr. Frank L. Campbell, October 5, 1935, when both worked at the USDA's Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland.

[12] As a result of their research, which began January 1941 at USDA, Goodhue, of Berwyn, Maryland,[13] and William N. Sullivan, of Washington, D.C., received a patent in 1943 for an aerosol "dispensing apparatus".

Using liquified gas as a propellant, its one-pound portable cylinder enabled soldiers to defend themselves against tropical malaria-carrying insects by spraying non-toxic insecticides inside tents and troop planes during World War II.

Of the 98 patents which he received at Phillips, he felt that his most important discovery was Avitrol®[16] a treatment which controls and disperses bird infestations through behavioral responses.

The Friday before Easter of 1941, the team of Goodhue and Sullivan received a summons to appear at a meeting in his office the following Monday to decide whether our project should be continued.

As soon as I could regain my composure, I drove home like a mad man and called Bill Sullivan and John Fales, and with great enthusiasm gave them the results of the first test.”[19][20]