Abstract
Simple SummaryDue to the harmful effects of pesticides on the environment and human health, alternative control methods have become more favored in vegetable pest management. Intercropping and natural enemy release are two widely implemented environmentally friendly control methods. In this study, the impact of sweet pepper/rosemary intercropping on pest population suppression was evaluated under greenhouse conditions and the effect of rosemary intercropping on natural enemy population dynamics was investigated. The results showed that intercropping rosemary with sweet pepper significantly reduced the population densities of three major pest species on sweet pepper, Frankliniella intonsa, Myzus persicae, and Bemisia tabaci, but did not affect the population densities of released natural enemies, predatory bug Orius sauteri, and parasitoid Encarsia formosa. Significant pest population suppression with no adverse effect on released natural enemy populations in the sweet pepper/rosemary intercropping system suggests this could be an approach for integrated pest management of greenhouse-cultivated sweet pepper.Intercropping of aromatic plants provides an environmentally benign route to reducing pest damage in agroecosystems. However, the effect of intercropping on natural enemies, another element which may be vital to the success of an integrated pest management approach, varies in different intercropping systems. Rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis L. (Lamiaceae), has been reported to be repellent to many insect species. In this study, the impact of sweet pepper/rosemary intercropping on pest population suppression was evaluated under greenhouse conditions and the effect of rosemary intercropping on natural enemy population dynamics was investigated. The results showed that intercropping rosemary with sweet pepper significantly reduced the population densities of three major pest species on sweet pepper, Frankliniella intonsa, Myzus persicae, and Bemisia tabaci, but did not affect the population densities of their natural enemies, the predatory bug, Orius sauteri, or parasitoid, Encarsia formosa. Significant pest population suppression with no adverse effect on released natural enemy populations in the sweet pepper/rosemary intercropping system suggests this could be an approach for integrated pest management of greenhouse-cultivated sweet pepper. Our results highlight the potential of the integration of alternative pest control strategies to optimize sustainable pest control.
Highlights
Due to the harmful effects of synthetic pesticides on the environment and human health, in addition to reduced efficacy due to resistance within pest populations, alternative control methods have become more favored in the framework of integrated pest management (IPM) [1]
Frankliniella intonsa densities throughout the sampling period were significantly lower in the sweet pepper/rosemary intercropping treatment compared to the sweet pepper monoculture treatment (χ2 = −9.469, p < 0.0001) (Figure 2A)
Bemisia tabaci densities throughout the sampling period were significantly lower in the sweet pepper/rosemary intercropping treatment compared to the sweet pepper mon‐
Summary
Due to the harmful effects of synthetic pesticides on the environment and human health, in addition to reduced efficacy due to resistance within pest populations, alternative control methods have become more favored in the framework of integrated pest management (IPM) [1]. Non-host plants could disrupt host-plant finding and host-plant acceptance behavior by providing insects with a choice of green surfaces on which to land (host and non-host plant leaves), according to the ‘appropriate/inappropriate landings theory’ [12,13,14] For these reasons, aromatic plants have been frequently used as intercrops to reduce pest damage to cultivated plants [15,16,17,18,19]. (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae), and parasitoid, Encarsia formosa) to conEncarsia formosa) to control pests on sweet pepper. The impacts of these two control strat‐. The impacts of these two control strategies pestofpopulation egies on pest population suppression were evaluated.
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