Current approaches to areawide pest management: obstacles and future directions.

Abstract

Abstract The objectives of areawide pest management (AWPM) have been directed to enhance the efficacy of non-pesticidal systems for pest control by reducing non-essential neurotoxins and to systematically reduce a target pest below a low residual level through the use of uniformly applied control measures over large, defined geographical areas. Other major objectives of AWPM have been to establish methods of monitoring insects for making pest management decisions, such as: (i) stored grain AWPM; (ii) to measure the efficacy of current pest management practices; (iii) to evaluate sanitation programmes; (iv) to reduce the risk of economic losses; and (v) to develop risk-management strategies. A recent endeavour was to stimulate a mosaic of different crops infested by a polyphagous pest insect to investigate the interplay between pest population growth, dispersal and control treatments termed 'sprays'. The goal has been to better understand the consequences of asynchronous versus synchronous control in areawide management. Thus, in the recent past, various approaches have been tried to make AWPM a success. This chapter describes the current approaches to AWPM and the obstacles to IPM implementation. Future directions are given.