10 Facts about Biological Control

Saturday, July 4th 2015. | Science


If you want to know to method to control the pests such as plant, weeds, mites and insects by utilizing the living organism, look at Facts about Biological Control. The method used for controlling the pest includes herbivory, parasitism, and predation. The augmentation, importation and conservation are considered as basic types of biological pest control methods.

Facts about Biological Control 1: the insect pest

The predators, pathogens and parasitoids are considered as the biological control agents. They are the natural enemies of insect pests.

Facts about Biological Control 2: the weeds

The herbivores, seed predators and plant pathogens are included as the biological control agents for weeds.

Biological Control Facts

Biological Control Facts

Facts about Biological Control 3: Importation

The classical biological control method is importation. This method can be conducted by introducing the natural enemies of the pest in the area. The government authorities usually do this method.

Facts about Biological Control 4: the Chinese text

There is a Chinese text with the title Records of the Plants and Trees of the Southern Regions written by Hsi Han dated back in 304AD. It used the importation by introducing the pest control technique for protecting the mandarin oranges.

Biological Control Image

Biological Control Image

Facts about Biological Control 5: the biological control in the west

Icerya purchase was the pest which could be controlled successfully in the end of 19th century. At that time, the California citrus industry was damaged by the Icerya purchasi.

Facts about Biological Control 6: Augmentation

Augmentation involves the release of the natural enemies. It may involve the inundative release or inoculative release. The latter one releases millions of natural enemies, while the former one only involves few natural enemies.

Biological Control Pic

Biological Control Pic

Facts about Biological Control 7: inundative release

The example of inundative release is when the people release the large number of lacewings, lady beetles, and parasitoids in field or vegetables crops. Get facts about beetles here.

Facts about Biological Control 8: inoculative release

The example of inoculative release can been on the release of Phytoseiulus persimilis. It used to control the spider mite.

Biological Control

Biological Control

Facts about Biological Control 9: how to control aphids

The most common way to control aphids is by releasing Hippodamia convergens. Check aphids facts here.

Facts about Biological Control 10: conservation

The last thing to do is conservation. It means that the population of the natural enemies should be conserved. Therefore, the population of the pest in the field can be controlled.

Facts about Biological Control

Facts about Biological Control

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