BIO 003

PLANT CONSERVATION (II)

(SFS)

DR. SUBAIR Bolarinwa Khadeejah

 Pest Management and Control
Pest
French- Peste and Latin- Pestis; plague or contagious disease.

A pest is any organism capable of spreading disease, causing damage or

reduce the quality and quantity of cultivated plants or agricultural products
thereby making them unfit for consumption. Pests can cause injury to crop,
forest and ornamental plants, injury and death to human and animals, and
destruction to stored products. Examples include some insects, microbial
organisms, nematodes, slugs, rodents and birds
In order to adequately control pests, one must correctly
identify the pest and determine the aim of the control, find out
available pest control tools and weigh the pros and cons and
design a strategy.

Controlling pests is aimed at:

 prevention- nipping in the bud and stopping a pest from
becoming a burden;
 suppression- reducing pest abundance or extent of damage;
and
 eradication- destroying the pest population.
Some Agricultural Pests
Type Pest Host
Insects Nilaparvata lugens Oryza sativa (Rice)
Spodoptera frugiperda Zea mays (Corn), Gosypium spp. (Cotton)
Tetranychus urticae Solanum lycopersicum (Tomato), Phaseolus
vulgaris (Cowpea).
Microorganisms Fungi- Claviceps spp. Rye and other cereal crops
F- Helminthosporium maydis Zea mays (Corn)
Nematodes Tylenchulus semipenetrans Citrus plants

Meloidogyne salasi Oryza sativa (Rice)

Heterodera zeae Z. mays

Pest management Methods

A. Biological:

This involves the use of the identified pest’s natural enemies. This
method does not effectively eradicate pests but sufficient elimination
of the threat can be achieved. Example is the use of predator insects such
as lady beetle againt aphids. Spiders are also natural enemies against
ahpids, beetles, caterpillars, leafhopper
Natural enemies can also attack beneficial organisms.
 • Advantages of Biological Pest Control
o Sufficient elimination can be achieved
o Not harmful to the host or the environment
o has no residue in the food/product
o Target specific

• Disadvantage of Biological Pest Control

o Does not effectively eradicate pest
o Beneficial organisms may be attacked
Lady beetle feed on aphids
B. Cultural:

These are agricultural practices which modify the relationship between a pest
population and the environment where they occur. Such cultural practices include crop
rotation, shifting cultivation, crop spacing, mixed cropping, varying planting and
harvesting time, pruning, irrigation and drainage management, etc.
• Advantages
o Cultural pest control is cheap,
o not harmful to the host crop,
o has no residue in the food/product,
o does not require additional labour
•Disadvantages
o requires careful timing,
o requires adequate planning,
o requires proper knowledge and skill set
C. Physical/ Mechanical:

This involves the use of machines, devices or other physical methods

to control pests or alter the host environment. Examples include use of
screens, fences, traps, nets, radiation and electricity, hand picking, etc.
• Advantages
o has no residue in the food/product

• Disadvantages
o It is expensive
o May cause harm to the host or its environment
o Additional labour is required
Use of net as a barrier
D. Chemical:

This involves the use of pesticides. Pesticides are chemical substances

used to manage pests by preventing, controlling or destroying them.
Pesticides can either be selective or non-selective. They are the foremost
and fastest way to control pests and usually the only tool available.
Examples include fungicides, insecticides, rodenticides, herbicide, etc.
• Advantages of chemical pest control

The use of pesticides have become

o Highly effective

o with great confidence in pest control.

• However, the disadvantages include

o they are expensive

o pose threat to human health as they leave residue in the plant

o they cause damage to the environment

o the use is not sustainable

o may cause damage to other non-targeted crops

Spraying chemicals on plants in a farm
Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

This is a strategy incorporating tools from several pest control

measures in order to combat the menace of pests. It is a combination of
appropriate pest control measures into one strategic plan with the aim of
reducing pest population and the damage they cause to an appreciable
level. It is a total approach to eliminating or reducing the pest problem.
The use of pathogenic (ethomopathogenis) fungi and bacteria is also
incorporated in IPM

• Enthomopathogenis Bacteria
• Bacillus thuringiensis against moth, butterfly and beetles

• Entomopathogenic Fungi
• Beauveria bassiana against aphids, white fly, termites, grasshoppers

• Cordyceps fumosoroseae againts aphids, root worm

Lygus hesperus killed by Beauveria bassiana
Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
Any strategy to be adopted depends on the pest, interaction with the host
and its environment. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is developed to:

• reduce pest population,

• reduce host susceptibility or
• combination of both

It can also involve the strategy to do nothing when the organism identified
is a guest and not a pest or when it is not perceived to cause any significant
damage.