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Use of Organisms to Control Insect Pests¹

ABSTRACT

Living organisms or products derived from living organisms offer the means of dealing with many insect pest problems. The well-known method of importing insect parasites or insect predators of alien pests has been successful to partially successful for controlling a wide range of pests. The possibility of making natural biotic agents more effective and dependable by making periodic releases of insect parasites, insect predators, and insect diseases is receiving more attention in view of great strides in the development of mass rearing methods for insects. The use of insects for their own destruction by employing sterilized or genetically altered insects is a new technique employed successfully against the screwworm and tropical fruit flies. The technique is offering promise for other major agricultural pests and disease vectors including the boll weevil, pink bollworm, codling moth, and tsetse flies. The use of pheromones derived from insects, a highly selective chemical approach to insect population management, is another promising approach receiving increased attention in research. Much research remains to be done to fully develop the use of organisms for managing insect pests. Conventional chemicals will remain the chief means of insect pest control for the foreseeable future but biological organisms in one or more ways should eventually play a prominent role in pest management systems.

¹ Paper presented Dec. 28–29, 1970, in Chicago, Ill., at the American Association for the Advancement of Science Section "O" Agriculture Symposium on "Agriculture and the Quality of the Environment in the Seventies."

² Science Advisor, Agricultural Research Service, USDA, Beltsville, Md. 20705.