Biological control

Many beneficial insects eat their own species

Preying mantis and Lacewing Larvae
 Predators
Omnivorous predators eat many other insects
• Dragonflies
• Damselflies
• Preying mentis
• Lacewings
• Assassin bugs
• Lady bird beetle
 Predators
• Many programmes aimed at conservation of these predators accuring
naturally
 Difficulties
• Move to new source when pest population is reduces for which release as
these are mobile
• May eat other beneficial insects
• Some are specialist feeding upon single host
Vidalia beetle to control cottony cushion scale
• 16% of projects have been successful for specialist predators
 Parasitoid
• Mostly from Hymenoptera and Diptera but also from other orders
Egg parasitoid
• Lay eggs in each host eggs
• Parasitoid larvae develop inside the host eggs eventually killing it
• High level of parasitism achieved by egg parasitoids
• Monitoring percentage of eggs is part of IPM programme for several pest
• When sufficient high parasitism is present under field condition, insecticides
are not applied
 Trichogramma
• Similarly larval parasitoids lay eggs inside the larvae
• Adult lay one to several eggs in the host larvae
Ichneumodis and Braconids
• Most of the adult of parasitoids feed upon nectars
 Disadvantages
• Host searching capacity may be strongly reduced duo to weather condition
• Only female search
• Often best searcher lay fewer eggs
Synchronization
Causing the parasitoids to fail to reduced host population
 Microbial control
• Control the pest by micro organism
• Bacteria, virus, fungi and nematodes are microbial control agent
Epizootic
• An epidemic of pathogens against arthropods
• Under favorable condition epizootic can kill the insect resulting in a
population crash
 Fungi
• Fungi of genus Entomophthora
• Kill the aphid lepidopterans caterpillars and grasshoppers
• Fungi require moisture, so under dry conditions delays may occur that allow
the pest populations to explore
Beauveria bassiana
Metarrhizium
 Bacteria
• Bacillus thuringensis is the most widely used pathogens
• Bt produces an insecticidal crystal protein known as endotoxin
• When endotoxin is ingested by insect larvae it becomes toxic
• There are different strains of Bt
• Bt is non toxic to worm blooded animals
Lepidopterans pests
 Viruses
• Record from Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera and Diptera
• After ingestion insect show no symptoms for 4 days to 3 weeks
• Dead larvae hang from the tops of the plants
• Difficult to culture