Helpful Predators in Agriculture Essay

The effective way of managing insect pests is usually through the execution of four-foldx manners, these differing tactics are assimilated into a single method to foreclose the pests at an acceptable level. Execution of multiple methods minimizes the possibility of the pests in adapting to any of the single method. An apt definition of integrated pest management, harmonise to Cornell Universitys Biological Control, would be, An ecologicly based pest govern schema that relies heavily on ingrained death rate factors and seeks out control tactics that disrupt these factors as little as possible (Weeden, Shelton, and Hoffmann).These agricultural pests, according to Altieri and Nicholls, such as insects, nematodes, and weeds, are responsible for more than 30% damaged crop production global annually. These losses had been consistent since the 1940s, when farmers started using chemicals in order to control pests (10). These agrichemicals that grant been used have its setbacks th ey have proved to be costly to farmers, they are harmful to the environment and, despite its popularity, it had not proven to be 100% effective.As mentioned in Organic Gardening magazine, insect-pests continued to be a problem in general due to the pests resistance and their unusual ability to adapt to a single method control strategy (1992). Many farmers are now looking for a solution that is less dependent on agrichemicals and focussed more on copying natures way of predatory system, among plants and insects. This method, known as ecological pest management, delegates the consummate farm as a complete complex system.This new method aims to keep the insect population at a manageable level with the use of many supporting or interdependent strategies, compared to the old method of aiming for the total eradication of every pest using one method for each pest. The method of ecological pest management uses forces that have been present in the natural world, durable even than the inve ntion of agriculture itself. As plants develop their innate defense mechanism against pests, they were helped by factors indoors the ecosystem, such as 1.Insects that objective on crop insects and mites by eating or sucking their juices. 2. reformative parasites that appropriate pests for food. 3. Organisms that cause diseases to insects, at times being fatal, and keep them from feeding or reproducing these organisms also prey on weeds. 4. Helpful fungi and bacteria that stays on roots, thereby retarding advances of disease organisms (Altieri and Nicholls, 11). Biological control is much like a living insecticide.It is the employment of natural enemies with the purpose of managing pests. It usually involves manipulating an insect into struggle a pest insect. According to a report published by Sustainable agrarian Network, the natural enemy may be a predator, a parasite, or a disease that will labialize pests (78). Helpful predators belong primarily in the families of beetle, dr agonfly, wasp, and bugs. Using chemical insecticides have been known to have eliminated these predators in farms.It has been studied that pests like Tetranychid mites, for example, have been plentiful in apple plantations where pesticides have wiped out entire predators population (Altieri and Nicholls, 80). Al most(prenominal) all predators prey on a vast variety of insect species and on different life stages, thereby making them very useful in managing insect pests. Some of the most efficient predators are spiders, lady beetles, ground beetles, lacewings, minute pirate bugs, big-eyed bugs, and syrphid flies (Altieri and Nicholls, 86).Conclusion Agriculture had been ever-changing its ways, it has been steadily returning to nature for the answers it has long sought for. Insecticides and pesticides are gradually being stored in the shelves, resulting in a healthier soil, crops, and a healthier method of farming. Perhaps it is within the grand design, that when human manners falters, we return to commune with nature. Works Cited Altieri, Miguel and Clara Nicholls. Manage Insects on Your Farm, A fall out to Ecological Strategies.Beltsville, MD, Sustainable Agricultural Network, 2005. Meet the Beneficial Insects, Organic Gardening. 09 February 1992. Retrieved 09 April 2009. Weeden, Catherine, Anthony Shelton and Michael Hoffmann. The Integrated Pest Management Strategy, Biological Control A Guide to Natural Enemies in North America. Cornell University. Retrieved 09 April 2009.