Pests organic control

Some pest problems are easily controlled by organic alternatives. Others are controlled oidy with difficulty or have no reliable organic controls. Some crops either must be avoided by organic gardeners or these gardeners must be willing to risk significant losses from pests. 

There are also annual climatic differences which affect host and pest. An organic control measure that works well one year may not work well the following year because of this climatic variation. 

While the F. macrophylla isobutylamides, especially pellitorine, are active against several species of pest organisms of medical and agricultural importance, their activity must be enhanced before they can be used on a commercial basis. Hopefully, the results of the present work will direct future studies leading to synthetic isobutylamides of sufficient activity to warrant their practical use in insect and snail control. 

Miltenburger, H. G. In "Environmental Protection and Biological Control of Pest Organisms" Lundholm, B. Stackerud, M., Eds. Ecol. Bull. 1980, 31, 57-74. 

Pests are controlled by actively encouraging, releasing and monitoring beneficial insects and organisms. The Fetzers plant plum trees all around the vineyards to attract the tiny parasitic wasp Anagrus that feeds on leafhoppers. Companion plants such as mustard, crimson clover and sunflowers are planted in rows alternating with permanent covers in the other rows across the entire vineyard to attract other beneficial insects. And ladybirds are introduced to feed on aphids. 

DIRECT. The pear sucker is a pest which can very effectively be kept under control by organic control measures. In years with poor weather conditions in June and July, however, the development of anthocorid bugs may be too slow. There may then be an explosive increase in the pear sucker population. 

It s important to keep this broader picture of the good side of insects in mind when fighting garden pests. Some control methods, especially organic sprays and dusts, kill bene-ficials as effectively as they kill pests. The goal for the organic gardener is to work with nature as much as possible to let populations of pests and beneficials balance one another. 

In general, physical control methods are more often used to control insects than to control diseases. There is a wide variety of traps and barriers that thwart many common insect pests. Physical control of disease organisms is limited to removing diseased plant parts by hand or with pruning tools. 

Kvcry year, we review hundreds of books on how to manage soils and pests organically and how to reduce the use of toxic materials. We re excited at the quality and completeness of The Organic Gardener s Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control and recommend it to our clients. ... 

Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and rodenticides are materials produced to be toxic to specific groups of pest organisms. These materials must be evaluated in order to test the ability of the chemical to control the pest and also to examine the toxicity of these materials to organisms that are not intended for control. A variety of toxicity tests are performed in order to evaluate the range of toxicity of candidate materials. From these tests decisions are made about how the pesticide can be used, how often, and at what concentrations. 

INA" bacteria are considered to be a pesticide when used in this manner because they are applied for the purpose of controlling pest organisms (i.e., INA+ bacteria that cause frost damage). 

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