Chapter 18 - Entomopathogens Routinely Used in Pest Control Strategies: Orchards in Tropical Climate

Abstract

Fruit and nut trees such as mango, pineapples, papaya, banana, guava, cashew, passion fruit, and avocado are important components of tropical ecosystems. They are sources of vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates and have great economic importance as sources of both household incomes and national revenues. Fruit and nut trees provide important adaptive values and tend to be more resilient to climate change due to their perennial nature, and they have the property of sequestering carbon. World production and trade of fresh tropical fruit are expected to expand over decades, with developing countries accounting for about 98% of total production, while developed countries account for 80% of world import trade. Insect pests and mites are considered the most important constraint to their production as they indirectly reduce yields by debilitating the plant and directly reduce the yield or quality of fruit. Some of these pests are quarantine pests and restrict export markets. The control of these insect pests and mites has relied on application of broad-spectrum synthetic chemical insecticides, which has generated a panoply of problems including safety risks, outbreaks of secondary pests, environmental contamination, decrease in biodiversity, and insecticide resistance. Microbial control agents (Bacillus thuringiensis, entomopathogenic fungi, viruses, and entomopathogenic nematodes) can be used as alternatives to synthetic chemical insecticides for the control of several orchard insect pests and mites as they are selective and safe. Insect and mite species for which the use of entomopathogens has been attempted are reviewed in this chapter.