Question

"Ban all pesticides". Write some long term solutions to find effective methods of controlling pests which have far less harmful effects and are based on sound biological principles.

Answer 1

Controlling pests using Biological methods can be classified into three basic categories namely conservation, classical and augmentation. First, conservation biological control (CBC) involves the deliberate human practice aimed at promoting the survival and activity of natural enemies at the expense of pest populations. Second, classical biological control (BC) involves the collection of natural enemies from their area of origin and releasing them in the new area where their host was introduced accidentally. This is of particular importance when the introduced pest species has no known alternative parasitoids indigenous to the area. However, the efficacy of a classical biological will depend on the newly released parasitoids to successfully establish populations that can compete in the new environment. Last, augmentative biological control (ABC) is the periodic release of large numbers of mass-reared natural enemies with the aim of supplementing natural enemy populations or flooding (i.e., inundating) pest populations with natural enemies. It is commercially deployed in various cropping systems worldwide and two forms of ABC have distinguished namely the inundative approach and the seasonal inoculative method.