Subject Name : Biopesticides and Biocontrol Agents

(Mass multiplication and uses)- PPATH4411

Topic Name : Different projects of biological control of pests

Lecture Number: 04
Faculty Name : Dr. Manas Mathur
Department Name: Agriculture
They had more hope on the tachinid parasitoids than the lady bird predator
and so the first shipment from Australia comprised 12,000 flies and only
100 lady birds, though another 380 of the latter were sent again.

It was the lady bird beetle which gave a complete success within 15
months of introductions of first shipment. It was very successful that
the German called it Koebele’s method.
The citrus yield was doubled the next year and even after more than 120 years it is
still released effectively against the management of Icerya purchasi. The quick
success led to the adoption of the method in Floidia, Hawaii, South Africa and
other countries including India. This is the first successful biological control
project which became firmly established scientifically and is continuing till dates
Control of sugarcane plant hopper and coconut moth in Hawaii and Fiji islands

In Hawaii the sugarcane plant hopper, Perkinsiella saccharicida was causing

serious damage around the year 1900.

Several chalcidid parasitoids were introduced from Australia between

1904-16 by R.C.L. Perkins and A. Koebele with partial success which was
finally brought under effective control by combination of an egg parasitoid,
Anagrus optabilis and a heteropteran predator, Tytthus mundulus (Miridae)
from Fiji, which sucks out the content of Perkinsiella.

This project stimulated the development a very active programme which

currently makes Hawaii an important centre of biological control.
Another well known example is the control of coconut moth, Levuana iridescens,
the larvae of which had become seriously injurious in Fiji by 1920.

Since, there was no record of pest outside Fiji, but another moth of same family
was known to parasitise by a tachinid fly, Ptychomyia remota in Java and
Malaysia. This was released in Fiji which could control the pest over whole island
in two years.

This success may be partly due to mild climate enabling generations of the
coconut moth to overlap continuously, so that caterpillar were always available
for parasitisation and also due to the fact that island is small and isolated.
 Glasshouse whitefly in Britain

In 1926, a gardener in Hertfordshire noticed that the whitefly scales were not the
normal translucent white colour, but black.

He sent those black scales to chestnut research station for identification,

where it was found to be parasitised by small wasp, Encarsia formusa.

The parasitoid was bred and released by the research station to growers in
the 1929 unit 1940’s when use of DDT ended the practice. However it was
resurrected in the 1970’s as part of bio-control packages of whiteflies.

It is more effective in glasshouses because it is more effective at warm/high

temperature which is provided in glasshouses
Control of San Jose and woolly aphid in India
The American strain, Encarsia (Prospaltella) perniciosi was imported in
1958, while Aphytis diaspidis in 1960 from USA for the control of San Jose
scale, Quadraspidiotus perniciosus and successfully established in
Himachal Pradesh and other apple growing parts of the country.

Besides, the woolly aphid, Erisoma lanigerum is controlled by Aphelinid

parasitoid, Aphelinus mali which was imported from USA in 1940 in
Western Himalayan and now established in other parts of the country.
 Introduction of Arthropod herbivores for weed
control in Australia (Prickly pear and Cactoblastis
moth)
In the 1880’s several species of ornamental cacti were introduced to Australia. Some species
especially prickly pear, Opuntia inermis and O. stricta spread rapidly in the forest and grazing
lands and by 1925.

In 1920, the Commonwealth prickly pear Board was formed to send entomologist to South
America, the suspected place for the weed to search the natural enemies and to establish
Quarantine laboratories in Australia to facilitate the testing of candidate agents.

Some 50 species of insects were collected and sent to Australia, out of which 12 species
established but the most effective insect was a moth, Cactoblastis cactorum. It was
collected in 1925 in Argentina and colonised in the field of Australia in 1926.

By 1930-32, a general collapse of cactus was observed at the original release sites and the
moth quickly spread and controlled the cacti throughout the infested area. This project
deeply impressed the Australian Govt. that strong biological control institutions were
created. Today Australia is one of the world leaders in the biological control of weeds.
Introduction of Arthropod pathogens (Rhinoceros beetles
and Baculovirus).

The first international successful use of an introduced arthropod pathogen of pest control occurred in 1967.

The rhinoceros beetles, Oryctes rhinoceros is an important pest of coconut and other oil palms. This
beetle is active to South East Asia which spread to Pacific islands.

In 1963, a baculovirus of both grub and adult were discovered in Malaysia and in 1967 the virus was
introduced into Western Samoa, where it controlled the pest.

The virus was subsequently moved to other islands with similar success. In Maldives, the percentage
of damaged palms by the beetle reduced from 40-60% to about 10% after the virus was introduced.

This project demonstrated that there is potentiality for pathogen to act as a bio-agent in biological
control of insect pest.