Basic Principle of pest control
1. Understanding the agro-ecosystem
2. Planning the agro-ecosystem.
3. Cost/benefit-and benefit/risk.
4. Tolerance to pest damage
5. Leave of pest residues
6. Time of treatments
7. Public understanding and acceptance.
1. Understanding the agro-ecosystem:
With the view of developing efficient pest management, procedure, good and sound knowledge of understanding about the agro-ecosystems is necessary. Ecosystems are self-sufficient habitats where living organisms and nonliving materials interact to exchange energy and matter in a continuous cycle.
Agro ecosystem can be more susceptible to pest and catastrophic out breaks because lack of diversity of plants, species of insects and the sudden alteration imposed by weather and man, increased density of plant per acre can dilute pest attack or provide condition unfavourable to pest increase.
2. Planning the agro-ecosystem:
In insect pest management, applied agro-ecosystem should anticipate pest problems and ways to avoid them.
E.g. a crop variety should not be grown if it is known to be unusually susceptible or potentially vulnerable to pest attack. Crop should be grown in a manner to avoid or reduce difficult pest problems.
3. Cost/ benefit and benefit/ risk:
Cost/ benefit:In most pest control activities the benefits are usually not known as they are usually not measured and cost of prevention becomes the cost or production. Improving capabilities for predicting pest problems and defining economic threshold will place increased, emphasis on cost and benefit.
Benefit/risk: Analysis provides a mean for assessing the relevant economic benefit versus the risk in pest control. A producer carefully considered the hazards of highly pesticide and takes action to ensure safety for himself under his workers in handling and in application. Similarly a grower must consider the effect on society and on the environment of a pesticide that is applied.
4. Tolerance to pest damage:
Insect attack is neither necessary in most cases for high yields nor appropriate insect pest management. Nearly all plants can tolerate a substantial degree of leaf destruction without appreciable damage plant figure, plant species that are tolerant or resistant to pests are better able to with-stand pest damage or suppress pest establishment and increase.
5. Leave of pest residues:
The ecological balances sought in pest management programs necessitate the wide spread encouragement at beneficial insects that are effective natural enemies of the pest species. They are often effectively removed by direct contact with broad spectrum insecticides regularly applied to field and orchard and are also destroyed by starvation when they prey, is totally eliminated by chemical control. Therefore an important concept of pest management is the necessity for leaving a permanent pest residue below the economic threshold, in an area where control measures are conducted. The concept is to suppress a pest but not annihilated.
6. Timing at treatment:
A crucial problem in successful pest management is the proper timing of insecticide treatments. Treatments should be based on need and single spray properly timed can often prevent excessive spraying, more efficient use results from careful timing at treatment based on improved techniques of monitoring population & crop development.
E.g. light trapping in own country to monitor jute hairy cater-pillar moth.
7. Public understanding acceptances:
Bringing people to an understanding to a pest management is the best way to build concern with insect pest problem. Special affords are being made by Entomologist to educate growers the public in the methodologies of pest management and the reasons for using them. Effective communication & salesmanship is the key to successful public understanding.
