A pest problem can manifest in many forms, from mice raiding your grain bins to unrestrained populations of insects destroying your crops to coyotes ravaging your chicken coop. Fortunately, you may prevent them from becoming out of hand by taking some precautions. Read on to learn about some of the most common pest control methods in agricultural settings and how you may put them to use on your farm or property.
Protecting crops from weeds, insects, and illnesses requires efficient pest control. Preventing pest introduction in the first place, optimal activity timing, crop rotation, mechanical control methods, and even promoting natural enemies of pests are just some of the methods available for pest management. In addition to protecting our lakes, rivers, streams, and the groundwater that many rely on for drinking, these diverse solutions, together with the careful and right use of pesticides, allow us to control pests in a safe, responsible, and cost-effective manner.
General Approaches to Insect Control
You can break down methods for controlling insect pests into a few broad categories. It is helpful to think about everything at your disposal when developing a comprehensive plan to deal with pests. M
Cultural Control
These techniques include shifting from conventional agricultural or gardening practices to prevent pests or reduce their habitat. The following are a few examples of the many forms of cultural control today.
By rotating between different crops, you can reduce the risk of damage from pests that can destroy one type of crop but not another. As an illustration, corn rootworm larvae can be starved to death by planting soybeans, alfalfa, oats, or some other non-host crop immediately after corn for one to two years. Since insect pests in gardens tend to congregate in small regions, crop rotation is not a particularly useful strategy. The term "sanitation" refers to removing any vegetation or other objects from a space you could use to conceal insects. Eliminating potential breeding grounds for pests requires cleaning pest-spreading equipment and clearing out greenhouses of weeds that could be home to mites, aphids, or whiteflies. In trap cropping, the prefered meal of a pest insect is provided next to the crop that needs protection; the pest insects are then lured to the trap crop, which is then destroyed. For instance, if you plant cucumbers near squash, the pickle worms will migrate to the squash, killing it. Timing your plantings will help you avoid problems with pests like the seed corn maggot.
Host Resistance
Plant resistance, or "host resistance," has been utilised successfully to mitigate insect infestations for decades. Some plants can physically and chemically resist, tolerate, and even kill pests. Geneticists in the plant breeding industry look for these traits and even try to improve them to create resistant varieties of crops. These days, it's not uncommon to find wheat, rice, alfalfa, corn, and apple cultivars resistant to at least one insect. Historically, it took a lot of time and effort to generate resistant types, involving numerous iterations of plant hybridisation. Traditional methods such as these will most doubt continue to be used, but it is expected that more sophisticated biotechnological processes will also produce pest-resistant crops.
Physical Controls
These are measures that, as the name implies, physically prevent insects from reaching their hosts. Barriers include floating row coverings for many horticultural crops, plant collars to prevent cutworms from eating tomatoes and other plants, and window screens for keeping health and nuisance pests out of buildings and greenhouses. Glue board traps are commonly used in houses, and red sphere traps are effective for catching apple maggots, but there are many more types of traps that can be employed for monitoring and control. For example, you can use cardboard bands placed around apple trees to trap and kill codling moth larvae before being discarded. Beer can be used as bait to lure in and kill pests like earwigs and slugs that might otherwise cause problems. Each instance of pest control requires a unique trapping strategy.
Mechanical Control
When pests are controlled mechanically, they are either eliminated or rendered harmless. Many homeowners and gardeners find them useful because of their speed and efficiency in dealing with short-term, severe pest infestations. In addition, mechanical controls are ideal for use with biological control in an integrated pest management strategy because they have a low impact on beneficial natural enemies of pests and other non-target organisms.
Large or conspicuously coloured foliage feeders, like the Colorado potato beetle, the Mexican bean beetle, and the tomato hornworm, can be picked by hand. If you knock over a plant, you might get some insects that protect themselves by jumping into a container of soapy water. You can shake off many pests plants by vigorously shaking them. To get rid of plum curculio beetles, for instance, you would knock the branches of the trees with a padded stick and catch the adult weevils as they fell onto a white sheet. With good soaking, you can wash aphids and mites off of indoor, outdoor, and glasshouse plants. Mechanical methods of control include the use of fly swatters and mouse traps. Unfortunately, many insects in the soil die of dehydration or are eaten by birds when the soil is worked.
Biological Control
The term "biocontrol" refers to using organisms that prey on pests instead. For example, many centuries ago, Chinese farmers noticed ants eating caterpillars, beetles, and other insect pests, damaging their citrus trees. Farmers found that by relocating the papery nests of a certain species of ant from trees in the countryside into their orchards, they could more effectively manage certain pest populations. In addition, they built a network of elevated bamboo walkways for the ants' convenience in navigating between the citrus trees. Increasing the number of ants in the orchard and improving their efficiency as predators is the first documented case of biological control of insects. Biological control involves intentionally manipulating populations of beneficial organisms, called natural enemies, to decrease the number of pests or the amount of damage caused.
Insects can have other insects, known as parasites or parasitoids, that lay their eggs inside or on them. The pest is killed when the parasite larva emerges from its egg and begins feeding on it. Typically, the parasite only needs that one host to mature. Many parasites are harmless to humans because they are highly picky about the kinds of insects they can infect. Insect parasites are prevalent. Trichogramma, one of the smallest, is about the size of a period at the end of this sentence.
Disease organisms can infect insects just like they can affect other animals. As a subset of biological pest management, "microbial control" employs insect diseases to reduce pest populations. Microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, and nematodes can all cause disease in insects.
Generally speaking, there are three methods that you can use for biological control. First, federal and state agencies import natural enemies to establish them permanently in new regions. Farming and gardening techniques that supply natural enemies with food, shelter, and protection from poisons and other harmful conditions are integral to sustainable conservation efforts. Finally, you can enhance biological control by raising the overall number of natural enemies through periodic releases that temporarily raise the overall population of natural enemies.
Chemical Control
Chemicals are used to eliminate pests or to prevent them from engaging in survival behaviours like eating, mating, or reproducing. Substances employed in chemical control may be either naturally occurring or synthetically produced analogues of naturally occurring chemicals.
You may usually keep insects at bay with the help of non-toxic repellants, confusions, and irritants that work by disrupting the insects' regular activity. Insect deterrents like mothballs and mosquito sprays are common examples. Using synthetic sex pheromones on a large scale is called mating disruption because it can confuse insects to the point where they cannot pair and create offspring. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) has utilised this strategy of dropping pheromone flakes from aeroplanes to treat huge areas of land to slow the spread of the gypsy moth in Wisconsin. There are commercially accessible alternatives for controlling other pests, such as the codling moth in apples. Large commercial plantings are ideal for this method because it reduces the likelihood that mated females may enter the plantation from elsewhere. However, these compounds used to modify behaviour are often short-lived and require frequent reapplication, strict containment, or slow-release formulations to be effective.
Many different kinds of toxins, some derived from nature and some manufactured, are available for purchase and usage as insecticides and miticides.
Every insect pest has a chemical control, typically a synthetic organic insecticide. One product can often manage multiple pests, which is why they are so popular in industrialised countries; they are also cheap to produce or implement, and their results are generally dependable and predictable. Since less effort is required for chemical pesticides compared to physical and mechanical controls, more land may be managed by the same number of people. The fight against disease-carrying insects, such as the mosquitoes that spread malaria, has benefited greatly from using chemical insecticides, which have also been widely applied in agricultural settings.
Agriculture has been pushed away from a more natural, balanced condition due to an over-reliance on chemicals and a decrease in the use of other control measures.
Integrated Pest Management
IPM is a versatile strategy of pest management that incorporates all proven, low-cost, and ecologically safe techniques into a single plan of action. Those who employ IPM methods understand that eradicating all pests is neither realistic nor financially sound, and you should keep that pest population at economically non-detrimental levels. People who practise integrated pest management (IPM) know and value the value of the natural controls that exist in the environment. Sustainable agriculture advocates for non-invasive pest management methods like plant resistance, biological control, and cultural control whenever possible. When everything else fails, it is best to save highly disruptive or environmentally hazardous methods. Pest populations should be monitored frequently and routinely so that chemical pesticides are only used when necessary. You can gauge natural enemies' effect on pest populations by keeping an eye on their numbers. When pesticides are necessary, it's best to use just those that won't kill off the good bugs already doing the job.
IPM is a constantly developing method of pest control. Changes in pest populations and their natural controls mean that specific management measures will vary among crops, locations, and years. You can add specific new methods to the application as they become available. Knowledge of both pests and beneficial insects, as well as the full range of management methods at their disposal, is essential for today's pest managers to succeed.
Conclusion
Mice rummaging through your grain silos are just one example of the damage that can be done by pests. Unchecked insect populations can wipe out an entire crop. In this article, we'll discuss some of the most often employed techniques for preventing and eliminating pests in agricultural settings, and how you may put those same ideas to use on your own land. When you switch up your crop rotation, you lessen your exposure to pests that may have previously wiped out your harvest but now only target one of your crops. Pests can be physically and chemically defeated by some plants. The seed corn maggot is one pest that can be avoided with careful planting timing.
Insects can't get to their hosts if there are hurdles in the way. Common household glue board traps and the more specialised red sphere traps are both useful for trapping apple maggots. Insect pests like aphids and mites can be washed away with a good soak for plants indoors, outdoors, and in greenhouses. By contrast to conventional pest management, "biocontrol" makes use of natural predators to reduce insect populations. Parasites, also known as parasitoids, are insects that live off of and lay eggs within or on the host insect.
When the parasite larva hatches from its egg, it immediately begins feeding on the pest, eventually causing its death. Non-toxic repellants, confusions, and irritants can be used to keep insects at bay by interfering with their normal behaviour. Mothballs and mosquito sprays are two kinds of insect repellents. Mating disruption refers to the widespread use of synthetic sex pheromones. IPM is a flexible approach to pest control that makes use of any and all methods that have been shown to be effective without negatively impacting the environment.
When it comes to pest management, sustainable farmers prefer to use less invasive strategies including plant resistance, biological control, and cultural control. Monitoring insect numbers on a regular basis will allow chemical pesticides to be applied only when they are truly needed. Insects and rodents should be eradicated because they are a health hazard, a financial burden, and a source of physical suffering for both humans and animals. Depending on what kind of pests you're dealing with, you can choose from a wide variety of pest control methods. Poisonous bait, field burning, trap crops, and insecticides all fall within this category.
Content Summary
- The elimination of weeds, insects, and diseases is dependent on effective pest control.
- Insect pest control strategies can be grouped into a few generalised types.
- Here are just a few of the various methods being used to exert power on people's cultural practises:
- When you switch up your crop rotation, you lessen your exposure to pests that may have previously wiped out your harvest but now only target one of your crops.
- Gardens have insect pests that prefer to gather in limited areas, making crop rotation a less effective technique.
- The seed corn maggot is one pest that can be avoided with careful planting timing.
- To effectively eradicate pests, you must develop a tailored trapping plan for each situation.
- Because of their little impact on beneficial natural enemies of pests and other non-target organisms, mechanical controls are also well-suited for use as part of a biological control approach in integrated pest management.
- Fly swatters and mouse traps are examples of mechanical ways of pest control.
- When it comes to controlling insect populations, "microbial control" is a subset of biological pest management that makes use of insect diseases.
- There are essentially three options available for biological control.
- Non-toxic repellants, confusions, and irritants can be used to keep insects at bay by interfering with their normal behaviour.
- Mating disruption refers to the widespread usage of synthetic sex pheromones, which can cause insemination problems for insects.
- For example, the codling moth in apples can be managed with commercially available alternatives.
- Both naturally occuring and synthetically produced poisons can be purchased and used as insecticides and miticides.
- The use of chemicals, usually in the form of a synthetic organic insecticide, can eliminate any insect pest.
- Chemical pesticides have been widely used in agricultural contexts and have proven effective in the fight against disease-carrying insects like the mosquitoes that cause malaria.
- Those that engage in integrated pest management (IPM) recognise and respect the significance of these ecological safeguards.
- When it comes to pest management, sustainable farmers prefer to use less invasive strategies including plant resistance, biological control, and cultural control.
- IPM is an evolving strategy for eliminating pests.
- Today's pest managers must be well-versed in not only the pests and beneficial insects they face, but also the whole spectrum of management options at their disposal.
- It is common practise to classify pesticide efficacy according on the insect species they are intended to kill.
- When it comes to eliminating unwanted pests, how many options are there?
- Depending on what kind of pests you're dealing with, you can choose from a wide variety of pest control methods.
Frequently Asked Questions
Pesticides, chemicals that kill pests or impede their growth, are by far the most widely used form of pest control. The effectiveness of pesticides is often categorised by the type of bug they are designed to eradicate.
In homes and urban environments, the pests are the rodents, birds, insects and other organisms that share the habitat with humans and that feed on and spoil possessions.
If pests and diseases cannot be prevented or controlled by cultural and physical means, it may be necessary to use natural pesticides.
Pest control is important because insects and rodents spread disease, can cause property damage, and can be painful to humans and animals alike. Rodents, for instance, may contaminate whatever edibles they discover in your kitchen by defecating on or around it.
There are many different types of pest control that can be used depending on the nature of the pests at hand. These include the use of poisoned bait, field burning, trap crops, and insecticides.