Pneumatic Control of Agricultural Insect Pests

Abstract

In the past few years, several articles have appeared in agricultural magazines on the value and usefulness of vacuum devices used to control insect pests on various crops (e.g. Hillsman 1988, Stockwin 1988, Lachance 1990, Street 1990; Pickel et al. 1995). Most of the facts in these articles are rather vague. Here, we aim at presenting the most complete and accurate information possible on the use of vacuum pest control in crops. Most of the scientific literature on the subject deals with two crop pests, the tarnished plant bug (a pest of strawberry crops) and the Colorado potato beetle. Readers are also invited to read the chapters in this book by Khelifi et al. (Chap. 18), Lacasse et al. (Chap. 20) and Weintraub and Horowitz (Chap. 21) for additional information on the pneumatic control of insects.