Pests apes 5b

Pesticides

What are pesticides? Chemicals that are toxic and kill unwanted organisms

Rodenticides

What do rodenticides do? Kill rodents

Fungicides

What do fungicides do? Kill fungus

Insecticides

What do insecticides do? Kill insects and bugs

Herbicides

What do herbicides do? Kill plants

PesticideResistance

How do pests become resistant to pesticides? Some survive due to genetic diversity, reproduce, and eventually become immune when pesticides are overused

GMO

What is a GMO? An organism whose genome has been altered by adding specific genes to achieve desired traits

BtCorn

What is Bt corn? Corn with a bacterial gene that produces Bt crystals toxic to pests

RoundUpReadyCrops

What are Round-up ready crops? Crops genetically modified to resist broad-spectrum herbicides like glyphosate

GMOProblems

What are problems with GMOs? Pests can gain resistance to Bt crops, herbicide use may increase, residues, and possible unknown genetic effects

GeneticDiversityIssue

Why is lack of genetic diversity a problem in GM crops? GM crops are often clones; monocrops are vulnerable to disease and pests, with no chance to develop resistance

ExamplesMonocropFailure

What are examples of monocrop failures? Gros Michel bananas with Panama disease, potatoes with blight

IPM

What is Integrated Pest Management (IPM)? Using multiple pest control methods to minimize chemical use and environmental disruption

Biocontrol

What is biocontrol? Introducing natural predators, parasites, or competitors to control pests (e.g., ladybugs for aphids, parasitic wasps for caterpillars)

CropRotation

How does crop rotation help with pest control? Prevents pests from establishing in soil and disrupts weed growth

Intercropping

What is intercropping? Growing multiple crops together to disrupt pests and provide habitats for natural predators

PushPullSystem

What is the push-pull system? Using push plants that repel pests and pull plants that attract pests to protect crops

IPMPros

What are the pros of IPM? Reduces death and mutation of non-target species, reduces pesticide exposure to humans, reduces water contamination

IPMNonTargetSpecies

Which non-target species are protected by IPM? Frogs (Atrazine), eagles (DDT), bees (glyphosate)

IPMHumanBenefit

How does IPM benefit humans? Reduces exposure to carcinogenic pesticides

IPMWaterBenefit

How does IPM protect water? Reduces contamination of groundwater and surface waters by pesticide runoff