Ways to control pests and plant diseases. Biological methods of pest control

The genetic method was applied relatively recently in Australia, in the United States. The callitroga fly lays its eggs on the skin of sheep and the larvae develop under the skin. By this they greatly harm sheep breeding. To destroy the pest, insects of this species are propagated in culture and exposed to radioactive cobalt, while the males become sterile, otherwise remaining viable. These insects are released into the wild, where they mate with females. Eggs laid after this are not able to develop. As a result, great success has been achieved in the destruction of the pest, first on a small island, and then on the vast expanses of the mainland. For some pests, now not irradiation is used, but chemical method sterilization, but the principle of the method does not change from this: a significant number of insects artificially deprived of the ability to produce offspring are released into nature. Due to a misunderstanding, this method is often called American in our country, while its author is the Soviet geneticist Professor of Moscow University A. S. Serebrovsky, who back in 1940 proposed it to combat harmful insects.

The method of biological baits is also still being developed. It consists in the fact that the extract of the odorous glands of a butterfly, a harmful insect, is placed in some kind of trap. As you know, butterflies attract males of this species for a very long time. long distances, males rush here, which fall into the trap.

Microbiological, or bacterial, method of pest control is widely used in our country. In the centers of mass reproduction harmful insects inoculation of viruses or bacteria, disease-causing, infecting with which the pest population dies. Widely known nice results production experiments in Siberia on the infection of Siberian silkworm caterpillars with bacilli that cause septicemia (putrefaction). Already a week after the aerial treatment of an area of ​​about 300 hectares of deciduous forests, up to 90% of the caterpillars died. Even a year after pollination, dead caterpillars in cocoons amounted to 55-70%. This method, proposed by Talalaev, is good in that when the caterpillars fall ill and die, it is completely harmless to humans and warm-blooded animals, and even to invertebrates, except for silkworms and, apparently, some other insects. The foci of the disease are very persistent, the corpses and cocoons of the caterpillars that remain on the tree serve as a source of diseases of other generations for several years, if any.

In Russia, the drug entobacterin is successfully used against pine and ringed silkworms, hawthorn caterpillars, golden tails and some others. The disadvantages of the bacterial method include that it is still basically a destructive method and is effective when the number of pests is very high and when the contact between individual insects, diseased and healthy, is large enough to transmit the disease to almost every individual.

She made great havoc in apple orchards south of the country. In 1931, it was possible to cope with this pest, as the Aphelinus was colonized. He is for a short time so reduced the number of blood aphids that in many places they practically ceased to be a pest. Another example is the importation of the predatory beetle Vedalia to Transcaucasia to fight the Australian mealybug Iteria. Iceria came to our country from Australia and became a very noticeable pest citrus trees. Vedalia also significantly reduced the number of mealybugs.

The last of the biological methods that we will mention is the use of vertebrates, primarily birds. With good reason, this method can be called zoological. It, like many others, was also thoroughly developed in our country. Even 15-20 years ago, production experiments to attract birds in reserves and in southern forest plantations gave excellent results in the fight against forest pests.

) that relies on predation, parasitism, herbivory, or some other natural mechanism. This method can be an essential component of an integrated pest management program.

review

Links

  • Education movies about biological pest control of white flies, aphids and spider mites in greenhouses
  • Association of Natural Biocontrol Producers (ANBP) Trade association of biological pest control industry.

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

See what "Biological pest control" is in other dictionaries:

    Basic information about insects total number species of animals inhabiting the Earth, insects account for about 70%. The number of species already described is approaching a million, but every year experts discover and describe more and more new and ... ... Biological Encyclopedia

    I Plant protection industry p. X. a science that develops methods and techniques for combating diseases, pests, and weeds p. X. crops and forest species, as well as a system of measures in agriculture and forestry to prevent and eliminate ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

    FOOD- FOOD. Contents: I. Nutrition as a social. hygiene problem. About Yaema P. in the light of historical development and tin human society....... . . 38 The problem of P. in capitalist society 42 Production of P. products in tsarist Russia and in the USSR ... Big medical encyclopedia

    - (Trichogramma) a genus of egg-eaters from the order Hymenoptera. Small (0.3 0.6 mm) insects; color from pale yellow to brownish black. As owners of T., 215 species of insects from 6 orders are known, mainly butterflies and ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

    The ability of plants to tolerate unfavorable conditions without damage winter conditions. In severe frosts, as a result of the formation of ice in cells or intercellular spaces, freezing of plants can occur. Appearing on crops during thaws ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

    This suborder is much larger than the first. As is reflected in the name of the suborder, the food connections of its representatives can be very diverse. It includes the bulk of beetles and is divided into big number families. ... ... Biological Encyclopedia

    - (Republic of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Tojikiston) Tajikistan. I. General information The Tajik ASSR was formed on October 14, 1924, as part of the Uzbek SSR; October 16, 1929 transformed into the Tajik SSR, December 5, 1929 ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

ladybugs(beetles with seven black dots on red elytra) and their larvae ( purple with yellow dots on the sides) feed on aphids, scale insects and false scale insects; one ladybug larva destroys up to 600-800 aphids during the period of its development, and an adult beetle 40-50 aphids per day. Ladybugs are highly fertile.

Ground beetles are oblong, flattened beetles, dark in color with a metallic sheen. They run fast, appear at dusk and at night, and during the day they hide under lumps of soil and in other secluded places. The beetles and their larvae feed on small caterpillars, slugs, snails, and larvae of weevils and other pests.

Ants destroy many pests, and spiders not only feed on insects, but many insects die in their web. A significant number of pests are exterminated by frogs. The hedgehog destroys not only harmful insects, but also mice, and the mole - slugs, moth pupae, etc.

Earthworms are found in almost any gardener and gardener. It is not for nothing that fans are interested in the question: useful earthworms or harmful to the garden. It turns out that they are useful and even benefit fruit and berry plantations, since, by making holes in the soil, they improve the structure of the soil, create favorable conditions for the development of plant roots.

It is also worth gardeners to pay attention not to such indispensable assistants in the fight against pests, which are insectivorous birds: tits, starlings, sparrows, woodpeckers, jays, rooks, crows, wagtails, etc. They must be attracted to gardens by arranging birdhouses, feeding them during the period of starvation, you can’t shoot birds, scare away, you should help them in the nesting device.

They are our constant "neighbors" in the garden, in the apartment - from the kitchen and window sills to pantries and wardrobes. Only here it is unlikely that such a neighborhood will bring joy to someone.

Insect control - physical methods

The fight against harmful insects has been carried out by mankind since time immemorial, because often the main danger of insect pests is not only in harming supplies and crops, but also in the fact that they spread various infectious diseases, and some also provoke allergies, and sometimes in the most severe forms.

The simplest methods of insect control are physical or mechanical. These include the collection of insects or their larvae by hand, as well as the use of various traps and light traps. Such methods do not work for all groups of insects, but they can achieve certain success, in particular, in the fight against garden pests.

Speaking about this group of methods, one should also mention the deprivation of insects of their “food base”: food debris should be removed to avoid the reproduction of flies, cockroaches or ants, parts damaged by the pest should be removed from plants in order to stop the reproduction of insects, etc.

Insect control - chemical methods

Chemical pest control methods - insects, mites, rodents - are based on the use chemicals that cause the death of adults of the pest and/or its larvae. Among the chemical agents used to control insects, there are relatively harmless ones (for example, traditionally used solutions of soap or ash, preparations boric acid) and are extremely toxic. The use of chemical agents can harm the environment, pets and people. In addition, the problem of adaptation of harmful insects to the drug used remains open.

Insect pest control with repellents is reduced to scaring away living individuals from the place where the source containing the repellent is located. The chemical group of repellents is often represented by rather harmless natural compounds, for example, essential oils, the only "minus" of which is a strong smell. Due to their harmlessness, natural-based repellents are added to creams, lotions and emulsions applied to the skin to protect against harmful insects.

Ultrasonic repellents are deprived of this drawback, the principle of which is to imitate an alarming squeak, for example, a male mosquito - such a sound will scare away females that are dangerous to humans.

Another variety - genetic method- is to saturate the population of insects with sterile males specially grown in laboratory conditions: as a result, the pest population dies due to the impossibility of reproduction.

Also in development is a method of biological bait, which consists in the use of traps in which an extract of the glands of female insects is placed. The smell attracts males of the same species over considerable distances, causing them to eventually fall into the trap.

The microbiological method of pest control consists in sowing viruses or bacteria that cause insect diseases in places of their mass reproduction.

Mosquito control

While the development of new methods of combating harmful insects is still underway, since new problems arise, associated, for example, with the ingress of pests that are not characteristic of the area, along with transport, cargo, etc., the tasks of combating a number of insects can be considered resolved. This also applies to mosquito control even in open areas:

The MKS (Mosquito Killing System), offered in our online store, allows you to reduce the harmful effects of these blood-sucking insects to zero, providing a new level of safety for people and environment, as it uses sustainable methods of destruction based on the biological behavior of mosquitoes

Biological pest and disease control

The biological method of pest and disease control also includes the use of biological preparations made on the basis of bacteria, fungi and viruses that cause diseases of harmful insects or suppress plant pathogens. Also, biological preparations are prepared on the basis of pathogenic bacteria that infect small and large rodents and lead them to illness and death.

It is widely used as part of the biological method of pest and disease control and the genetic method based on artificial (chemical or radiation) sterilization of male insect pests. Insects sterilized in this way are unable to reproduce and lead to population decline.

A large number of pests are destroyed by insectivorous birds of prey, such as tits, starlings, wagtails and woodpeckers. Attraction of birds by the device of various man-made nests, birdhouses, as well as feeders in winter time contributes to a significant reduction in the number of insect pests. This method of biological control of pests and diseases does not require large expenditures.

Thus, we can conclude that the biological method of pest and disease control is cheap and does not disturb the ecological balance. The use of the biological method of pest and disease control eliminates unnecessary expenses and the consequences associated with the chemical method of struggle. Biological preparations are practically safe for humans and for the environment. However, the biological method of pest and disease control still requires careful development, since the contribution of the method to plant protection is still not great enough. At the moment when chemical methods control of pests and plant diseases are becoming more and more costly and time-consuming, and the benefits they bring are no longer as obvious as the harm done to the environment, the biological method of control of pests and plant diseases comes to the fore in terms of prospects. Biologists are improving biopreparations that protect plants and their distribution already reaches 10% of the sown area in the world.

Those who care about the environmental cleanliness of the crop on their site can be recommended to contact the specialized company "Zelenitel Stroy", where experienced employees will help you select the necessary biopreparations for plant protection.

What else to read