Conventional and New Biological and Habitat Interventions for Integrated Pest Management Systems: Review and Case Studies using Eldana saccharina Walker(Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

Abstract

Conventional Integrated Pest Management (IPM) systems have concentrated on controlling pests through informed use of cultural and biological control and host plant resistance characteristics to minimise pesticide interventions. The basic foundation of successful IPM systems is a thorough knowledge of the target pest’s life cycle, and its ecological and behavioral interactions with the environment and natural controlling factors in both its indigenous and crop habitats. Through this basic knowledge, a number of new interventions can be added to the IPM arsenal. These include management of the habitat to make the crop less suitable for colonisation by potential pests, and to increase natural enemy foraging and abundance in the crop habitat, increasing the efficacy of conservation, inoculative and augmentative biological control. In addition, more is known about impact of plant and insect pathogens and symbionts on target pest populations by making potential host plants more or less suitable for colonisation, adding a fourth trophic level to agro-ecosystem dynamics. Furthermore, the impact of these on fertility and offspring sex ratios (e.g. Wolbachia isolates in pest and natural enemy populations) makes their exploitation, in combination with interventions such as Sterile Insect Technology (SIT), a real and practical possibility. This chapter evaluates the newer interventions, using examples from the literature and from local research to show the effectiveness of these, and how they can be incorporated into conventional IPM practices, to make them more effective.