Biological Control

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
All insect pest populations tend to increase exponentially as long as there is adequate food, suitable environment, and no predators or parasites. Historically, pest control has focused on the use of pesticides, exclusion (packaging), and adverse environmental conditions (desiccation, modified atmosphere, or temperature extremes) to suppress stored-product insects. Biological control employs parasites, predators, or pathogens (microorganisms that cause disease) to suppress pest populations. Although biological control may seem new to the field of stored-product insects, it was first used in 1911 against the Mediterranean flour moth (Froggatt 1912) and has a long history in other areas of agriculture (Simmonds et al. 1976). Interest in biological control is increasing as consumers become more intolerant of pesticide residues and as availability of conventional pesticides decreases due to pest resistance, developmental costs, and government registration and safety requirements (Waage 1991). The practicality of biological control is exemplified by the dominant role it plays in integrated pest management in greenhouses in northern Europe (van Lenteren and Woets 1988). Previous reviews of biological control of stored-product pests include those by Arbogast (1984b,c), Haines (1984), Brower (1990), Nilakhe and Parker (1990), Brower et al. (1991a), Burkholder and Faustini (1991), and Gordh and Hartman (1991).

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: