ASSIGNMENT

Course: Pest Management

Submitted to: Dr. Amaninder Kaur

Submitted by: Charudutt Poonia

Direct Control of Pest
Destruction of the pest by mechanical means such as burning,
trapping, protective screens and barriers or use of temperature
and humidity comes under direct control.

1. HANDPICKING: When the infestation is low, the pest is

conspicuous and labor is cheap, the pest stages can be
destroyed by mechanical means. Eggs of grasshoppers can be
destroyed by hand. Alfalfa aphids can be killed by using chain
drags on plants less than 10 inches long. Locust nymphs which
are congregating can be beaten by sticks and brooms.
European corn borer in the stalk can be killed by running the
corn stalks through the stalk shredder. Handpicking of
sugarcane borer eggs, cabbage butterfly eggs, sawfly larvae on
mustard, Papilio larvae from citrus plants and stages
of Epilachna beetle is very effective, especially in small areas.

2. BURNING: Controlled burning is sometimes recommended

to control certain pests. Weedy fallows harboring European
corn borers are burnt to destroy overwintering pest stages. To
eradicate the pink bollworm dried cotton stalks are piled and
dried. Trash and garbage, weeds etc. are collected and burnt to
destroy pest stages. Flamethrowers are used to burn locust
hoppers and adults that are congregating and marching.

3. TRAPPING: Trapping is popular method to lure insects to

bait, light to kill them. Traps usually fail to give adequate crop
protection but prove useful to know population build up and
are convenient to collect insect samples. Many trap designs
have been developed room time to time to suit different insect
species. Hopper-dozers were formerly used to collect
grasshoppers. In these the insects after hitting the back of the
machine fall to the bottom and then through a narrow opening
collect into a box.
Yellow-pan traps containing water and few drops of oil were
proved useful in killing hopper adults on paddy, sugarcane and
wheat crops.

Sticky traps are boards of yellow color smeared with sticky

substance, which trap and kill the flying insects that are
attracted to and try to rest on it.

Pitfall traps are pan-like containers bearing insecticide and

embedded below the ground level. Crawling and fast-running
insects often fall into them and die.

Light traps attract night-flying insects, which fall into a

container having insecticide, water or oil, or hit an electric grid.
Light source emitting UV light is most attractive to insects.

Pheromoe traps are particularly effective against the

lepidopterous pests. Females release specific pheromone to
which males are attracted from considerable distance.

4. BARRIERS: In certain instances, barriers may prevent insects

from infesting the crop. Cloth screens over seedbeds protect
the younger plants from insects, like flea beetles, hoppers,
armyworms etc. Metal collars around young plants protect
them from cutworms. Trench barriers are used to stop chinch
bugs, armyworms, locusts etc. Metal or concrete barriers are
used against termites. Barrier spraying of residual insecticides
has become more popular against termites, locusts and several
other insects. Sticky bands applied around mango tree-trunks
during December-January prevent the upward movement of
mango mealy bugs, which upon hatching begin to crawl up the
trunk to reach the leaves.
5. TEMPERATURE CONTROL: Temperature extremes are fatal
to insects. This method is used against stored grain pests. Low
temperatures that are enough to dormancy can prevent
damage. Low temperatures are utilized for the control of
insects in flourmills and warehouses. Exposure to subzero
temperature for 24 hours is lethal to most of the insects.

6. DRYING: Insects infesting stored grains require certain

amount of moisture to develop. Neither the rice weevils nor
the granary weevils can survive moisture contents as low as
8.0%. Drying the grains either in the sun or by heat blowers
reduces infestation of majority of stored grain insects.

Natural Control of Pest

Culture Control
Cultural pest control refers to the manipulation of the crop
production system or cultural practices to reduce or eliminate
pest populations. Cultural control practices can range from
simple concepts such as adjusting planting dates to avoid pest
infestations to more complex farmscaping approaches that may
include adjusting the spatial and temporal arrangement of
an agroecosystem. Cultural practices can be complex to
implement, particularly those that rely on interactions of
multiple plant species and arthropods. For this reason, their use
is more common in small-scale diversified farming systems than
large-scale monoculture tomatoes.
Perhaps the most common and easily implemented cultural
pest management practice is the concept of avoidance.
Practices such as adjusted planting dates and crop rotations
have long been recognized at the local or farm level to avoid
pest infestations. Avoidance measures can be particularly
effective when implemented on an area-wide scale.

Control by Natural Enemies

Birds, mammals and reptiles feed on insect pests, but the most
important group of natural enemies are insects that feed on
other insects. These beneficial insects occur abundantly in
cropland and provide a significant amount of control of some
crop pests.
It’s important to recognize that the intent of biological control
is not to eradicate the pest population, but to reduce the
population to below the economic threshold necessary for a
pesticide application. In fact, because natural enemies require
prey or hosts for survival, biological control works best when
there is always a small population of pests to sustain the
populations of these natural enemies. This is a major difference
between biological control and the use of pesticides..
Biological control can be easily and effectively supplemented
with cultural and carefully-chosen chemical controls when
necessary. This is the basis of the concept of integrated pest
management.

Genetic Control
Some control tactics are designed to suppress a pest population
by altering its genetic makeup and/or reducing its reproductive
potential these tactics are frequently known as genetic controls
because they affect the accuracy or efficiency with which a pest
species passes its genetic material (DNA) from one generation
to the next.
Genetic control usually works in one of two ways: either by
causing (inducing) reproductive sterility, or by incorporating
new and potentially deleterious genes (or alleles) into the
genetic makeup of a pest population. In effect, some members
of a pest species are transformed into biological time bombs
that eventually destroy other members of their own species.
Because of the self-destructive nature of these tactics, they are
sometimes called autocidal control.
Insects can be sterilized by exposing them to certain chemical
agents or to non-lethal levels of ionizing radiation (X-rays or
gamma rays). They usually work by blocking the onset of sexual
maturity, by inhibiting the production of eggs and/or sperm, or
by damaging the chromosomes.
Exposure to radiation also damages chromosomes. Since cells
with damaged chromosomes cannot divide correctly, they do
not form normal gametes or produce viable offspring.
Classification of Pesticides According to
Chemical Constituents

Botanical Pesticides
Botanical Pesticides or natural insecticides are organic and
natural pesticides that are derived from plants and minerals,
that have naturally occurring defensive properties. These types
of pesticides have become more popular since they do not
release toxins as they decompose. Also, they have proven to be
more useful than conventional insecticides as insects become
more resistant to synthetic pesticides.
Plants use self-created pesticides as a form of defense against
diseases, herbivores, and insects. These Botanical Pesticides
include chemicals such as nicotine or urushiol and oils like
citrus oils. The insecticides made with these natural pesticides
have minimal to no toxic effect on the environment while
acting fast to tackle insects.

Synthetic organic Compounds

Synthetic organic chemicals are man-made substances that
contain carbon atoms. Note that this definition relies heavily on
the presence of the element carbon. This is very important
because all organic compounds are organic because they have
a carbon atom in their structure.
Synthetic organic pesticides are produced artificially by
chemical synthesis. This group comprises most "modern"
pesticides and includes DDT, permethrin, malathion, 2, 4-D,
glyphosphate, and many, many others.
Organophosphate formulations remain available for vector
control, their use has dramatically decreased because of
resistance to OPs, the potential for non-target effects, and the
development of alternative products. Members of this group
contain phosphorous in their molecules. Products
currently labeled for vector control include naled, malathion,
and some formulations of dursban. Organophosphates are
considered by most to pose a greater human health risk for
pesticide applicators than other families of pesticides.
Carbamates are chemically similar in structure to
organophosphates, but whereas OPs are derivatives of
phosphoric acid, carbamates are derivatives of carbamic acid.
Pesticides in this group used for vector control
in California include carbaryl for dusting rodent burrows to
control fleas, propoxur for use against insect pests, and certain
brands of bee and wasp control sprays. Carbamates also pose a
relatively high risk for human poisoning. Some carbamates are
herbicides.

Microbial pesticides
Microbial pesticides kill arthropods either by toxins released by
microbial organisms, or by infection by the organisms. Two
common pesticides that fit within this group include the
bacterial toxin produced by Bti, and the live bacteria, Bacillus
sphaericus. Products containing both of these bacteria are used
against mosquito larvae, with Bti being effective in killing black
fly larvae as well. Most microbial pesticides are more selective
than biochemical pesticides.

Synthetic Pyrethroids
Pyrethroids are synthetic chemical insecticides whose chemical
structures are adapted from the chemical structures of the
pyrethrins and act in a similar manner to pyrethrins.
Pyrethroids are modified to increase their stability in sunlight.
Most pyrethrins and some pyrethroid products are formulated
with synergists, such as piperonyl butoxide and MGK-264, to
enhance the pesticidal properties of the product.