Management of tropical forest insect pests

Abstract

In all countries research in forest entomology manages to convey the impression that it produces little that is of direct use to the executive forest officer. The average entomological bulletin with its detailed life-cycle studies, its technical descriptions, its record of discarded theories and incidental experiments does not appeal to his taste. It is either rejected or digested hastily, and the core of practical results remains undetected in the voluminous fruit of the investigation. What the forest officer requires, it has been said, are not life histories, but death histories; not suggested remedies but tested remedies. C. F. C. Beeson (1924, pp. 516–17) Pest control, pest management and integrated pest management ‘Pest control’ was the term commonly used in the past for our attempts to limit the damage caused by pests. We tried to kill the pest insects using chemical or other means. In spite of initial success, we soon realized that it was not easy to kill off the insects; they reappeared when the effect of the insecticide waned or developed resistance to the chemicals. Humbled by the success of the pests, we also realized that pests need to be controlled only if they cause economic damage. The term ‘pest management’ was therefore coined to indicate management of the pest population to limit it to a tolerable level. The emphasis was on regulating the population size, not killing all the pest insects, which was impracticable anyway. The concept of ‘integrated pest management’ (IPM) emerged in the 1970s.