Author: Lorna Sharp

Pests are organisms that cause damage or spoil crops, animals, and other materials. Some natural forces help control pest populations, such as climate, natural enemies, food, water, and shelter availability.

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This group of methods aims to prevent pests from damaging plants by removing the resources they need—food, water, shelter—or by blocking their access. These methods are often much less expensive than chemical controls and usually have fewer off-target effects. However, they may be harder to implement than other control tactics.

Physical or mechanical controls include traps, screens, barriers, and exclusion techniques that physically prevent pests from gaining entry into crops or structures. For example, a screen can create a boundary that insects cannot cross while allowing air to flow freely. Barrier sprays, on the other hand, can produce a chemical boundary that repels insects from a home or garden. These techniques are most effective when used in conjunction with other control measures.

Other forms of physical control use natural enemies of pests to reduce their populations. These natural enemies include predators, parasites, nematodes, and competitors. Predators and parasites kill or injure pests that would otherwise damage crops or gardens. They also compete with pests for food, water, and shelter. Nematodes and competitors consume or displace pests, depriving them of the resources they need for survival.

Biological or natural controls are organisms that interact with pests in ways that reduce their damage or influence the behavior of those pests. Examples of biological pest controls are fungi, viruses, bacteria, and beneficial insects such as ladybugs, wasps, and lacewings. Pheromones are chemicals that influence the behavior of other organisms in a pest population.

In general, pest control should be undertaken only when the number of pests reaches unacceptable levels. Threshold levels for pests are generally based on esthetic, health, or economic concerns. The key to making threshold-based decisions is scouting and monitoring.

By understanding what factors promote or limit the growth of pests, you can better predict when and how to apply control methods. You can also tailor those methods to the environment and specific circumstances in which pests appear. For example, mountain ranges and large bodies of water restrict the spread of some species of insects. You can also alter the conditions that encourage plant diseases by changing irrigation practices or planting resistant varieties of crops.

Biological Control

Biological control (or biocontrol) uses living organisms — predators, parasitoids, pathogens, or competitors – to suppress and/or make pest animals, weeds, or plant diseases less damaging than they would otherwise be. It is a natural method of pest control that can be used as part of integrated pest management (IPM) programs to reduce the use of synthetic chemicals and/or other controls.

In nature, organism populations are subject to frequent attacks and high mortality rates from natural enemies — predators, parasitoids, herbivores, or pathogens — that keep them in balance with their environment and in check. Invasive plants and insects introduced to new areas often lack their normal complement of natural enemies, which allow them to grow unchecked and eventually outpace native species. This imbalance leads to the formation of so-called “invasive” species, which have become a serious problem in agriculture and natural ecosystems.

Biocontrol levels the playing field by reintroducing some of the special natural enemies that helped to control a particular invasive species in its native habitat. These organisms are screened and selected for their ability to attack and suppress the target pest in our environment, and then mass-reared and released into agricultural fields, nurseries, or other locations where the target pest is present. Biological control agents are not treated with chemical pesticides, so they remain effective for the life of the crop and can be reused year after year.

The most common form of biological control is the conservation of resident or naturally occurring beneficial organisms that are adapted to the target pest. For example, lacewings, hover flies, or fungus-infected aphid mummies are often found in aphid colonies and can be encouraged by providing aphid host plants. This practice, sometimes called classical biological control, is simple and cost-effective.

Another way to increase the number of natural enemies is by introducing new ones to an area, which is known as augmentative biological control. This is done by mass-rearing natural enemies in insectaries and releasing them into an agricultural or natural habitat where the population of the target pest is too low to sustain a viable population of natural enemies on its own. Biological control agents may be released in this manner on a seasonal basis, or inundatively.

Natural Forces

The purchase and mass release of predators, parasites, or pathogens to prevent the growth of a pest can be an effective form of biological control. These “natural enemies” can be purchased from commercial suppliers or made in laboratories. When successfully established, they can lower pest populations without further human intervention and at a relatively low cost. This form of control is best suited for greenhouses or other enclosed structures, where the natural enemy can become established.

Most biological controls involve predators, parasitoids, or pathogens and are designed to control specific pests. They may also be used in combination with other controls. The success of biocontrol depends on the number of natural enemies released and their ability to find and attack the pests. The natural enemy must also have a high reproductive rate and must be capable of finding new hosts. Additionally, its life cycle must coincide with the pest’s life cycle in order to effectively control the pest population.

A variety of fungi and bacteria can be used as biocontrol agents, including the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) bacteria that targets caterpillar pests; metarhizium, which controls nematodes; and Heterorhabditis spp., which control root-feeding grubs. Other biological controls include spiders, wasps, and mites.

Biological controls are most often employed when pests threaten crop production and public health, but they can be used in home gardens as well. Fern-leaf yarrow (Achillea filipendulina), for instance, is a beautiful herb that attracts predatory insects such as lacewings and hoverflies. Another great home garden plant is the dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), which produces natural insecticidal compounds that can be used to fight diseases and insects that damage plants.

Suppression and prevention are goals of most pest management programs, but eradication is occasionally attempted. The goal of eradication is to reduce pests below the level at which they cause unacceptable harm, and it usually requires a multi-tactic approach that includes cultural, mechanical, and chemical control methods.

Eradication is especially difficult for outdoor pest problems that are widespread or difficult to monitor. Governmental agencies often support eradication programs for exotic pests that pose a threat to food or forest crops, livestock, and wildlife.

Eradication

Pests are unwanted creatures that are known to cause serious problems such as physical contamination of food with rodent droppings, insect parts or other foreign material, contamination with disease causing agents carried on the bodies or in the guts of the pests and direct damage to buildings and structures. Pests may be controlled through setting traps or baits, blocking points of entry using quality sealant or knitted copper mesh, removing trash on a regular basis and making sure all areas are cleaned up on a daily basis. Professionals are able to deal with all kinds of pests in commercial environments including rodents, cockroaches, termites, and bed bugs.

The most common form of pest control is through chemical based products. These come in the form of over the counter sprays that can be easily sprayed onto suspected areas where pests may be found. These products often contain poisonous substances that can be dangerous for humans and pets. They should be used only in accordance with the manufacturer’s product label. Applying more than the recommended amount will not improve results and can be illegal in some countries.

There are also microbial pesticides available, such as the bacteria Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), which has been developed into strains that target specific insects. Microbial control agents are generally considered to be safer than conventional pesticides but they may have lower shelf-stability and a limited host range, meaning that they need to be applied more frequently.

Eradication is a form of pest control that involves eliminating an entire population of the organism through biological or chemical means. Typically, it is only employed when the pests are likely to cause more harm than is reasonable to accept. Examples of eradication include the Smallpox Eradication Program (SEP) and the programs for eradicating Guinea worm and polio.

Many people are hesitant to use pest control methods that result in the death of the pests, even when such controls may offer advantages over non-lethal control techniques. This is probably because of the deep human attachment to and valuing of life, which makes some pests more ‘acceptable’ than others. A review by DoC of public attitudes towards different pest control measures indicates that the majority of the public supports genetic controls when the outcomes are preventative or result in no significant mortality, but not for those that are purely eugenic.