Helpful Predators in Agriculture Essay

The effective way of managing sucking louse curses is usually through the murder of multiple methods, these differing tactics are assimilated into a single method to corroborate the fellows at an acceptable level. Execution of multiple methods minimizes the possibility of the pests in adapting to all of the single method. An apt definition of integrated pest management, according to Cornell Universitys biological Control, would be, An ecologically based pest control outline that relies heavy on natural mortality factors and seeks out control tactics that separate 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 proceeds production worldwide annually. These losses had been consistent since the 1940s, when farmers started using chemicals in club to control pests (10). These agrichemicals that make water been used h ave its setbacks they have proved to be costly to farmers, they are harmful to the environment and, despite its popularity, it had not be to be 100% effective.As menti unrivalledd in Organic Gardening magazine, insect-pests move to be a problem mainly due to the pests resistance and their erratic ability to adapt to a single method control strategy (1992). Many farmers are now looking for a solution that is slight dependent on agrichemicals and focused more on copying temperaments way of predatory system, among plants and insects. This method, known as ecological pest management, delegates the entire farm as a complete complex system.This recent method aims to keep the insect population at a manageable level with the use of many supporting or interdependent strategies, compared to the elder 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, longer even than the invention of factory farm itself. As plants develop their innate defense mechanism against pests, they were helped by factors at heart the ecosystem, such as 1.Insects that antecede on crop insects and mites by have or sucking their juices. 2. Helpful parasites that appropriate pests for food. 3. Organisms that cause unsoundnesss to insects, at multiplication 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 exercising of natural enemies with the purpose of managing pests. It usually involves manipulating an insect into attacking a pest insect. According to a report published by Sustainable awkward Network, the natural enemy may be a predator, a parasite, or a disease that will attack pests (78). Helpful predators belong earlie r in the families of beetle, dragonfly, 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). Almost all predators prey on a vast variety of insect species and on antithetic life stages, thereby making them very useful in managing insect pests. Some of the most efficient predators are spiders, lady beetles, ground beetles, lacewings, secondment pirate bugs, big-eyed bugs, and syrphid flies (Altieri and Nicholls, 86).Conclusion Agriculture had been 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. by chance it is within the grand design, that whe n human ingenuity falters, we return to commune with nature. work Cited Altieri, Miguel and Clara Nicholls. Manage Insects on Your Farm, A Guide to Ecological Strategies.Beltsville, MD, Sustainable verdant 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.