Pest Rule and Control Management

Economic Effects Therefore, biological pest control is heavily analyzed by the amount of economic gain that directly comes from biological control. Many of the known economics of biological control are related directly to agriculture practices. Since agriculture has a huge impact on biodiversity this could potentially increase the biodiversity among agricultural practices. In order for agriculture to keep up with the growing population, many inputs are increased resulting in the loss of un-harmful species. Biological control use has been very minimal in agriculture. Less than 1% of global pest control sales of $30 billion involve biological methods (Griffiths 2007:in press). Very few case studies on the cost-benefit analysis of biological control have been done however a few have taken place. A Critical evaluation of augmentative biological control has found four case studies. In one case, â??the releases of a parasitoid Gryon pennsylvanicum (Ashmead) to control the true bug Anasa tristis (DeGeer) on pumpkins produced lower net benefit (in dollars ) than applications of esfenvalerate (pesticide); 18% lower in one year and 120% lower in the next. In 1 year of the study, a combination of augmentative releases and use of a resistant pumpkin variety produced greater net benefit than pesticide alone, but not pesticide combined with the resistant variety (Olson et al. 1996)â?. Another case study found that â??calculated that releases of T. nubilale were considerably less cost-effective than pesticide applications used to control ECB on feed corn and fresh-market sweet corn. Pesticide applications produced 87% and 45% more net benefit (in dollars) than augmentation for feed corn and fresh market corn, respectively. In seed corn, however, Trichogramma releases produced essentially equivalent net benefits to pesticide treatments. In a third cost-benefit analysis of augmentation, Lundgren et al. (2002) showed that Trichogramma brassicae Bezdenko releases produced considerably less net benefit (94%; measured in cabbage head production) than methomyl treatments (Andow 1997). In two other studies, â??biological control releases were about two times the cost of pesticide applications; this was true for releases of a parasitoid, Choetospila elegans (Westwood), used to control a stored product pest, Rhyzopertha dominica (F.) (Flinn et al.,1996) and releases of green lacewings, Chrysoperla carnea (Stephens) to control leafhoppers in grapes (Daane et al., 1996). Finally Prokrym et al. (1992) suggested that Trichogramma releases were about six times as expensive as pesticide treatments for O. nubilalis in sweet corn,â?(Collier 2003). These case studies offer us some idea of how economical biological control can be. These show that biological control is less cost effective than chemical pest  applications and in result raises a flag that more research needs to be done. With progression in research, we can use more controls at a cheaper cost and increase the amount of biodiversity in areas because of the minimal use of chemicals that cannot target a specific species of pest.

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Tags: Biological pest control, Economic Effects

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