Pest Control Methods Overview

Pest Control Methods

• Pest control focuses on reducing or eliminating pest populations to protect crops and human health.
• Cultural Control: This method involves manipulating the environment to make it less suitable for pests.
  • Tillage operations: Ploughing and other tillage expose pests to the surface, making them vulnerable to predators like birds or heat.
  • Crop rotation: Rotating crops helps break the continuous food supply for pests, reducing their populations.
  • Trap cropping: Using specific crops to attract pests away from the main crop. For example, okra can attract Jassids and spotted bollworms away from cotton.
  • Sanitation of field: Removing and destroying unwanted plants, plant debris, and weeds to reduce pest habitats.
  • Timing of sowing/planting: Can prevent pest infections by avoiding their egg-laying periods and allowing young plants to establish.

Biological Control

• Biological control uses natural enemies to control pest populations.

• Predaceous insects:

  • Green Lace Wing: Feeds on aphids, jassids, and whiteflies.
  • Australian Ladybird beetle: Feeds on mealy bugs.
  • Ladybird beetle: Feeds on aphids.
  • Syrphid fly: Feeds on various insects.
  • Vedalia beetle: Feeds on cottony cushion scale.
  • Dipha (Conobathra) aphidivora: Feeds on sugarcane wooly aphids.

• Parasitic insects (Parasitoids):

  • Egg Parasitoids:
    • Trichogramma japonicum: Parasite of stem borer in paddy.
    • Trichogramma chilonus: Parasite of cotton bollworms and sugarcane stem borers.
  • Larval Parasitoid:
    • Bracon kirkpatrickii and Apanteles angaleti: Parasite of cotton bollworms.
  • Egg-Larval Paranoids:
    • Capidosoma koeheleri and Chilonus blackberni: Parasite of potato tuber moth.
  • Nymphal & Adult Parasitoid:
    • Epiricania meloneuca: Parasite of sugarcane pyrilla.
    • Aphelinus mali: Parasite of Apple wooly aphids.

• Predatory Vertebrates:

  • Birds: King-crow and myna are useful birds that consume crop pests.
  • Ducks: Used in rice paddies to control bugs.
  • Fishes: Destroy mosquito larvae.
  • Frog: Eats paddy stem borers.
  • Toad and wall lizard: Consume termites, crickets, grasshoppers, bugs, etc.
  • Snake: Feed on rats.

• Nematode parasites:

  • Over 46 nematode species parasitize various insects, such as beetles, grasshoppers, cockroaches, and moths.
  • Neoaplectana glaseri: Used for control of Japanese beetles.
  • Rhabditids: Symbiotic relationship with bacteria, forming disease complexes. For example, DD-136 association between the nematode Neoplanctana caprocapsi and bacterium Acromobacter nematophilus against Codling moth of apple.

• Pathogens:

  • Microbial control uses microorganisms like fungi, bacteria, viruses, protozoa, rickettsia, and nematodes to control pest populations.

Legal Control

• In Maharashtra, India:
  • The Chief plant protection officer is responsible for issuing licenses for the manufacture and sale of pesticides.
  • Divisional Superintending Agriculture Officer acts as licensing officer for the sale and stock of pesticides.
  • Joint Director of Agriculture (Extension) acts as the Appellate Authority for appeals against licensing decisions.
  • District Agricultural Officer collects insecticide samples to ensure their purity.

Chemical Control

• Chemical control: Uses chemical pesticides to control insect pests.
• Pesticides: Chemicals used for insect pest control.
• Types of pesticides:
  • Avicides: Chemicals used to repel birds. Example: Anthraquionone.
  • Molluscicides: Chemicals used to kill snails and slugs. Example: Metaldehyde.
  • Nematicides: Chemicals used to control nematodes. Example: Ethylene dibromide.
  • Fungicides: Chemicals used to control plant diseases caused by fungi. Example: Copper oxychloride.
  • Bactericide: Chemicals used to control plant diseases caused by bacteria. Example: Streptomycin sulfate.
  • Herbicide: Chemicals used to control weeds. Example: 2,4,D.
  • Algicides: Chemicals used to control algae.
  • Arboricides: Chemicals used to control trees or shrubs.
  • Piscicides: Chemicals used to control harmful fishes.
• Classification based on mode of entry:
  • Stomach poison: Insecticides ingested by insects, affecting their digestive system. Examples: Bt, organochlorine, and organophosphates.
  • Contact poison: Insecticides cause death through direct contact with the insect's body. Examples: Nicotine, Pyrethrum, Quinolphos, Malathion, synthetic pyrethroids.
  • Fumigants: Pesticides in gaseous form that enter insects through their respiratory system. Examples: Methyl Bromide, Hydrogen cyanide (HCN), ethylene dibromide, DDVP, Lindane.

Neem

• Neem contains insecticidal properties in all its parts, but seeds are the most effective source.
• Active ingredient: Azadirachtin, along with other alkaloids like limonoids and protolimonoids.
• Activities: Repellent, antifeedant, and insecticidal.
• Effective against insects like: American bollworm, leaf-eating caterpillar, diamondback moth, armyworm, leaf hoppers, and thrips.

Pyrethroids/Pyrethrums/Pyrethrins

• Extracted from chrysanthemum flowers.
• Active ingredients: Pyrethrin I and II, cinerin I and II.
• Pyrethrums are dried flower powder.
• Pyrethrins are active toxins of Pyrethrum.
• Pyrethroids are synthetic derivatives of pyrethrins.
• Lipophilic (fat-loving) compounds, insoluble in water.
• More toxic to insects but safe to mammals.
• Synthetic Pyrethroids: Cypermethrine, permethrin, deltamethrin, decamethrin, and fenvalerate. Effective against soft-bodied insects.

Rotenone

• Derived from roots of bean legumes, Derris eliptica.
• Used against leaf-eating caterpillars in 1848.
• Active ingredient: Rotenone, isolated in 1882.
• Contact and stomach poison.
• Inhibits respiratory metabolism.
• Extremely toxic to fish; used as a piscide.

Scilliroside

• Obtained from the bulb of red squill, Urginea maritime.

This quiz explores various pest control methods, focusing on cultural and biological controls that help manage pest populations effectively. Learn about tillage operations, crop rotation, trap cropping, and sanitation in the field, along with the role of natural enemies in biological control. Test your knowledge to ensure sustainable crop protection and human health.