Biocontrol is the control of pests by interference with their ecological status, as by introducing a natural enemy or a pathogen into the environment. Biocontrol is a method used for pest control in crop production, it reduces the reliance on using synthetic pesticides, thus not having as much of a negative impact on the environment as pesticides. Using a biocontrol also maintains the economic viability of crop production. The global rate of using biocontrol compared to conventional methods has remained minimal. Biocontrol needs an active human management role where it relies on predation, parasitism, herbivory and other natural mechanisms to control pests such as insects, mites, weeds and plant diseases by using other organisms.
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It is usually used as a method of control between professional farmers particularly used in greenhouse crops. Thus, reducing the use of pesticides. In the beginning, augmentative control was used in a way of managing pests that had become immune to the use of pesticides. Now it is used as it is more cost efficient then using pesticides and the impacts that the use of pesticides has on the environment. There are over 125 species of natural enemies that are commercially used for augmentative biocontrol. ‘When compared with chemical control there are no phytotoxic effects on young plants, premature abortion of fruit and flowers does not occur, release of natural enemies takes less time and is more pleasant than applying pesticides, several key pests can be controlled only with natural enemies, and there is no safety or re-entry period after release of natural enemies; this allows continuous harvesting without danger to the health of greenhouse person.’ The use of this control can see the predator that is introduced can destroy all the pests and become a pest itself as it will have no natural predators in its area. An example of this is seen with the use of cane toads in North Queensland which its job was to eat the beetles that was attacking the sugar cane crops but the problem was that the toads couldn’t jump high enough to eat the beetles. The toad has now become an invasive species and have become and dominant population. They feed on native animals and the toxin in their bodies often kills their potential
There are …show more content…
It is usually used as a method of control between professional farmers particularly used in greenhouse crops. Thus, reducing the use of pesticides. In the beginning, augmentative control was used in a way of managing pests that had become immune to the use of pesticides. Now it is used as it is more cost efficient then using pesticides and the impacts that the use of pesticides has on the environment. There are over 125 species of natural enemies that are commercially used for augmentative biocontrol. ‘When compared with chemical control there are no phytotoxic effects on young plants, premature abortion of fruit and flowers does not occur, release of natural enemies takes less time and is more pleasant than applying pesticides, several key pests can be controlled only with natural enemies, and there is no safety or re-entry period after release of natural enemies; this allows continuous harvesting without danger to the health of greenhouse person.’ The use of this control can see the predator that is introduced can destroy all the pests and become a pest itself as it will have no natural predators in its area. An example of this is seen with the use of cane toads in North Queensland which its job was to eat the beetles that was attacking the sugar cane crops but the problem was that the toads couldn’t jump high enough to eat the beetles. The toad has now become an invasive species and have become and dominant population. They feed on native animals and the toxin in their bodies often kills their potential