Plant pest control

Plant Pest Control Branch, Agricultural Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Heath D. F., The Composition of Systox and the Behaviour of This Insecticide in the Living Plant, Pest Control Ltd., Cambridge, 1953. 

Monoculture The practice of planting the same genetically uniform crop year after year. Monoculture can lead to higher yields (because planting, pest control and harvesting can be standardized) but also to large-scale crop failure if the crop becomes susceptible to a disease. 

Entoma Directory of Insect and Plant Pest Control. ... 

Phytoalexins and Phototoxins in Plant Pest Control presents a model approach to the binding of a phytoalexin elicator to DNA, studies of phytoalexins in cotton and peanuts, chapters on phototoxic metabolites of tropical plants and on photosensitizing porphyrins as herbicides. 

Every continent, except Antarctica, grows com 40% of the present world crop is produced in the United States. In the 1987—1988 crop year, 12 states (Iowa, HI., Nebr., Minn., Ind., Ohio, Wis., Mo., S. Dak., Mich., Kans., and Tex. in order of production) produced 157.5 million metric tons (6.2 biUion bushels) that was 88% of the United States and 36% of the world s crop (66). Yield is influenced by many factors, including climate, pest control, planting density, and fertilization. Yield in the United States has increased from about 1.5 metric tons /hectare in the 1930s to about 7.5 metric tons /hectare. In 1985, a test plot produced 23.2 metric tons /hectare and yields approaching 40 metric tons /hectare are considered possible com is the most productive of the principal food crops. 

Fluoroacetic acid [144-49-OJ, FCH2COOH, is noted for its high, toxicity to animals, including humans. It is sold in the form of its sodium salt as a rodenticide and general mammalian pest control agent. The acid has mp, 33°C bp, 165°C heat of combustion, —715.8 kJ/mol( —171.08 kcal/mol) (1) enthalpy of vaporization, 83.89 kJ /mol (20.05 kcal/mol) (2). Some thermodynamic and transport properties of its aqueous solutions have been pubHshed (3), as has the molecular stmcture of the acid as deterrnined by microwave spectroscopy (4). Although first prepared in 1896 (5), its unusual toxicity was not pubhshed until 50 years later (6). The acid is the toxic constituent of a South African plant Dichapetalum i mosum better known as gifirlaar (7). At least 24 other poisonous plant species are known to contain it (8). 

The proper choice and appHcation of an insecticide for pest control are predicated upon factors, eg, the life history and ecology of the pest, the relation of pest population to economic damage, the effect of the insecticide on the pest or its plant or animal host, related organisms in the ecosystem, and proper timing of the appHcation to prevent illegal residues at harvest and to avoid damaging of bees and other pollinating insects. 

Most biological and cultural pest controls return greater profits than pesticides. For example, biological pest controls are reported to return from 30 to 300 per dollar invested in control (16). Various cultural controls like host plant resistance, crop rotations, and tillage, also return 30 to 300 per dollar Invested in pest control (16). 

Proper understanding of allelopathic crop and weed plants including their growth stages at which toxin production occurs and characterization of allelopathic agents frcm these plants provide new avenues for developing technologies in weed control, crop efficiency, pest control and plant diseases. 

Principles of Plant and Animal Pest Control, Vol. 2, Weed Control" National Academy of Sciences, 1975, pp. 6-35. 

The use of plant extracts for insect control dates into antiquity the use of Paris green as an insecticide for control of the Colorado potato beetle in 1867 probably marks the beginning of the modern era of chemical control of injurious insects. The development of lead arsenate followed later in the nineteenth century for gypsy moth control. The commercial production of nicotine insecticides, the production of calcium arsenate at the time of the first world war, and the use of fluorine, arsenical, and cyanide compounds, as well as other inorganic chemicals for insect control, were important steps in pest control. These chemicals were applied largely by dilute high pressure sprays or dusts. 

Brown P D and Morra M J (1997), Control of soil-bome plant pests using glucosinolate-containing plants , Adv Agronomy, 61, 167-231. 

Owing to the prohibition of chemosynthetic pesticides under organic farming standards, there is a greatly reduced availability of intervention/treatment-based methods for disease and pest control in organic fruit production systems. The efficacy of the permitted biological control, extract or mineral element (e.g. S and Cu)-based crop protection products is also usually lower than of chemosynthetic pesticides. Permitted plant protection products show efficacies of between 60 and 80% while chemosynthetic fungicides and pesticides often have efficacy levels >95% (Tamm et al., 2004). 

Major steps included, for example, plant production, transport, processing and retail. Each major step was subdivided into activities called substeps , which were defined in common categories. For example, the major step transport from processor to retailer could contain substeps in the following categories certification/inspection management labour packaging/labelling equipment pest control contact to supplier/customer. 

Alternative crops Biofortification Diversification Decreases erosion Increases biodiversity Increases yield Increases soil nitrogen Recycles nutrients Pest control Plant disease control (2009) Deguine et al. (2009) Dordas (2009) Etchevers et al. (2009) Kalinova (2009) Knorzer et al. (2009) Malezieux et al. (2009) Palaniappan et al. (2009) Spiertz (2009) Zuo and Zhang (2009)... 

Katan (1981) Solar heating (solarization) of soil for control of soilbome pests. Ann Rev Phytopathol 19 211-236. doi 10.1146/annurev.py.l9.090181.001235 Katan J (1987) Soil solarization. In Chet I (ed) Innovative approaches to plant disease control. Wiley, New York, USA, pp 77-105... 

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