Before we can try to understand whether biological pest control is the answer to environmental concerns related to pest control, it would be appropriate to give us a little background information on this entire pest control business; for the benefit of those who may find it for the first time.
Now, pests are organisms (typically insects) that are detrimental to the interests of the people who refer to them as such. Therefore, for farmers, insects that invade and eat their crops (either in the fields or during storage) would be called pests. On the other hand, household insects that tend to spoil things in domestic environments (such as moths, which can spoil stored fabrics), are seen as pests by housekeepers. It’s worth keeping in mind that while most pests are insects, there are also quite a few that are not – rodents (which can disrupt crops on farms of things stored in domestic settings) are also considered pests. , even though they are not insects. Having seen that pests are harmful, it would be natural that the people who happen to be victims of them would want to get rid of them. In the meantime, people who have not yet been plagued would be willing to avoid such a fate. Hosting pests, by the way, can be a serious fate: Thousands of hectares of farmland have been known to be wasted by pests in a single day, resulting in losses that often run into the millions of dollars. Measures taken to prevent pest invasion at that time, or to resolve pest invasion if it has already taken place, are called constitutive pest control.
Now, pest control takes various forms, depending on the pests one is trying to get rid of (or prevent invasion). And while larger pests like rodents can be controlled through mechanical means such as traps, over a long period of time, it is chemical control that has worked for the vast majority of pests, which tend to be insects as is. mentioned above. The chemicals used in this effort are what are called pesticides. And while pesticides are often very effective in controlling pests, their traitement punaise de lit downside tends to come when we consider the fact that they tend to be extremely harmful to the environment. It is worth noting, at this point, the fact that chemicals called pesticides tend to be very powerful. Therefore, it often happens that traces of them remain where they were used, even after the pests have disappeared. Those traces are eventually carried into the bodies of water where they wreak great havoc on the plants and animals (which are not pests) that reside in the bodies of water.
It is concern about this environmental impact of chemical pest control that led to questions about whether a more environmentally friendly method of controlling pests could not be developed. The end result was the exploration of alternatives such as biological pest control, which we are trying to see if it really is the answer to the concerns raised about pest control (based on chemicals).
In the biological control of pests, it is other organisms that are known to be predators of what are considered pests that are unleashed on said pests; eating them and thus solving the pest problem. Therefore, if the problem pests are aphids, the other organisms that are known to feed on aphids move into the field where the problem is, to feed on the aphids, instead of spraying a chemical harmful to the environment environment. However, the problem with biological pest control is that it tends to have questionable effectiveness. While chemical pest control tends to be thorough, leaving no pests or even traces of them, in biological pest control, that cannot be entirely assured. The implementation of biological pest control on a large scale (for example, in a plantation of 1,000 hectares) can also be a Herculean task. Ultimately, it’s considerations like these that keep us thinking about more environmentally friendly pest control approaches. This is because biological pest control, while definitely an approach that addresses the environmental concerns raised about chemical pest control, does not appear to be efficient (or scalable) enough, in the opinion of most people.