NE

Pest Control Methods

  • Goal of Pesticides
    • Control pest organisms to reduce crop damage and increase crop yield
  • Ideal pesticide
    • Kill only target pest
    • Harm no other species
    • Breakdown into something harmless
    • Not cause genetic resistance
    • Cost-effective
  • Pesticides can be:
    • Broad-spectrum
    • Narrow spectrum
    • Vary in persistence
  • Types of pesticides
    • Insecticides: insect killers
    • Herbicides : weed killers
    • Fungicides : fungus killers
    • Nematocides : roundworm killers
    • Rodenticides : rat and mouse killers
  • 5 major pests in the United States
    • Grasshopper
    • Destroys crops in western U.S.
    • European red mite
    • Destroy deciduous fruit trees - apple, pear, plum
    • Boll weevil
    • Destroys cotton fields in the South
    • Pink boll worm
    • Destroys cotton farms in the South
    • Gypsy moth
    • Caterpillar destroys hard wood trees in the East
  • History of Pesticides
    • 500 B.C - sulfur
    • 1400s - arsenic, lead, mercury
    • 1600s - tobacco leaves
    • 1800s - pyrthrum and rotenone
    • 1939 - DDT
  • DDT
    • Dichlorosdiphenytrichloroethane
    • Pros
    • Controlled pests
    • Broad-spectrum
    • Inexpensive
    • Not water-soluble
    • Crop yield increased
    • Controlled malaria
    • Cons
    • Non-target creatures killed
      • Birds
      • Fish
    • Banned in 1972
  • Regulation
    • @@FIFRA@@
    • Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide
    • Amended in 1972
    • New and Old products
    • No more than 1 cancer per million people for certain pesticide over a lifetime
    • Requires EPA approval for the use of pesticides
    • @@1996 Food Quality Protection Act@@
    • Human health
    • Amount that can remain on crop when eaten
  • Advantages of Pesticides
    • Saves lives
    • @@Prevents diseases@@
    • Malaria
    • Bubonic plague
    • Typhus
    • Sleeping sickness
    • Increase food supply
    • Lowers food waste
    • Works better and faster than alternatives
    • Minimal health risks
  • Disadvantages of Pesticides
    • Pesticide mobility
    • Pesticides are carried out by the wind and water runoff
      • Disrupts food webs that are far away
    • Genetic resistance
    • Causes human health problems
  • Other ways to control pests
    • Cultivation practices
    • Genetic Engineering (GMO)
    • Biological pest control
    • Natural predators
    • Parasites
    • Bacteria
    • Incest birth control
    • Spraying insects with hot water
    • Works well on cotton, alfalfa, and potatoes
    • IPM - integrated pest management
    • Limited use of pesticides and other practices
  • IPM - integrated pest management
    • Ecosystem based strategy that focuses on long term management of pests
    • Cultivation
    • Fool the pest through cultivation practices
      • Ex: intercropping - plant a crop that attracts the pest to protect the cash crop
    • Biological
    • Attract the pest’s predators
    • Add viruses that attach to specific insect’s larvae
    • Implant genetic resistance
    • Use pheromones to lure pests into traps
    • Physical
    • Put a net around the crop
    • Vacuum harmful bugs
    • Disadvantages
    • Requires expert knowledge
    • Methods applied in one area might not apply in another
    • Initial cost is higher