BIOLOGICAL

CONTROL
 BIOLOGICAL CONTROL

Natural control strategies that employ

biological agents for pest suppression

Refer to the practice of rearing and releasing

natural enemies ( parasites , predators , or
pathogens )

Management activity is designed to protect

or conserve natural enemies .
HISTORY
 200 A.D. - 1200 A.D: BC
Chinese were the first to use natural enemies in control
insects pets.
Nets of the ant ( Oecophylla smaragdina ) were sold near
the Canton in the 3rd century for use in the control of
citrus insect pests for example Tesseratoma papillosa (
Lepidoptera )
 1300 A.D - 1799 A.D
The control of bedbug ( Cimex lectularius ) was
successfully accomplished by realeses of the
predatory pentatomid ( Picromerus bidens in
1776 ) in Europe
 1850 - 1887
Egg parasites ( Trichogramma sp. ) were shipped
from United States to Canada for control of
lepidopterous pests in 1882
 1888 - 1889
The vedalia beetle controls the scale mainly in the
inland desert areas

C. iceryae controls it in the coastal areas of

California
 4,000 years ago
Cats were used as the first biological control for
rodents in Egypt
 1849
Governor Martines introduce Chinese Starling in
Philippines

To contol the migratory locust infestation

CHARLES VALENTINE RILEY
• Known as the " Father
of Modern Biological
Control "
• he is the first person
who import mites
• To control grapevine
Phyllaxera
CURRENT ISSUES
 In Malaysia : Conservation biological
control of oil palm bagworms

• Involve the use of local organism instead of imported ones which to

control pests and diseases.
• These organism are already part of the natural environment but may
have been deminished and rendered ineffective by the indiscriminate
use of pesticides .
• Chemical insecticides do not distinguish between good and bad insects
and would eliminate the good insects , making control totally dependent
on the continuos use of such insecticides .
• As the pest insects develop resistance , the insecticides have to be
made increasingly more potent and more harmful to the environtment .
• Going back to natural control involves taking action to restore , conserve
, and promote natural control organism .
• Back in 1950s the oubreak of the oil palm bagworms threatened the
survival of an emerging industry . It was demostrated that low level most
of the time by effective native natural enemies espicially wasps .
• If insecticides are used , they would kill many of the parasitoids and
predators that keep population of these pests in check .
 In Malaysia : The saga of the rice brown
planthopper (BPH)

• Successful conservation biological control in this country has been clearly

revealed in the research on the rice insect .
• The records in the Department of Agriculture show that the rice brown
planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stal) (Hemiptera : Delphacidae) was first
reported in Malacca in 1939 .
• Normally it existed in very low population until 1977 when large outbreaks
were reported from the Tanjung Karang Irrigation Scheme . Later studied
showed that this rice pest multiplied in large numbers when its natural
enemies such as Pardosa pseudoannulata (Boesenberg and strand)
(Araneae : Lycosidae) , Cyrtorhinus Lividipennis Reuter (Hemiptera :
Miridae) . Casnoidea interstitialis Schmidt Gobel (Coleoptera : Carabidae);
Paederus fuscipes Curt. ( Coleoptera : Staphylinidae) and
Pseudogonatopus sp. (Hymenoptera : Dryinidae ) were killed by
insecticides .
• This led to the phenomenon of hopperburn as a result dehydration of the
rice plants caused by the sucking activity of the large numbers the BPH .
• Hence , minimizing the use of chemical insecticides will help maintain the
rich agro-biodiversity existing in rice fields in malaysia and result in better
control of the planthopper .
Nilaparvata lugens Pardosa
pseudoannulata
Cyrtorhinus
Lividipennis

Pseudogonatopus sp.

Saga of the rice brown

planthopper (BPH)
Casnoidea
Paederus fuscipes interstitialis
 In Africa : Cassava ( Manihot esculenta )
• Most recent successes in biological control in further example of
classical control .
• Cassava is the one of the staple diet crops for number of African
countries .
• It was introduced to Africa from South America and had been grown for
hundreds of years without any major pest problems , until the 1970s .
• The crop then became infested with an accidentally imported mealy bug
from South America Phenacoccus manihoti , which spread rapidly over
the next 15 years through many countries .
• A search in South America found the pest in Paraguay , together with
one of its natural enemies , the parasitoid Epidinocarsis lopezi . The
parasitoid showed good searching ability , apparently locating its host
by attraction to damage leaves and was able to develop more quickly
than the mealy bug .
• After its first release in Nigeria in 1981 , E.lopezi spread rapidly through
neighbouring african countries and is now regarded as one the most
successful programmes in biological control with enormous economic
benefits .
 Manihot esculenta

Phenacoccus Epidinocarsis
manihoti lopezi
 In California : Inundative control on a field
scale involved the citrophilus meanly bug ,
Pseudococcus calceolariae

• One of the first successes with inundative control on a field scale

involved the citrophilus meanly bug , Pseudococcus calceolariae
Fernald ( equal to gahani Green ) , a pest of citrus in southern
california ( luck & Forster 2003 ) .
• With the discovery and spread of the mealy bug in 1913 , the citrus
growers were faced with a serious problem that threatened the
crop's viability . In response to this problems , the citrus industry
established insectaries to mass-produce the predatory beetle
Cryptolaemus montrouzieri ( Smith & Armitage 1920 , 1931 ; Quayle
1938 ) .
• Mass production techniques were developed by the early 1920s and
, for the next decade , the beetle was the principal means of
suppressing the pest. in 1930 , at the height of the P.calceolariae
campaign , 16 insectaries had been established and were producing
20 million beetles annually for release in infested groves ( Luck &
Forster 2003 ) .
Pseudococcus
calceolariae

Cryptolaemus
montrouzieri
 AGENTS IN
BIOLOGICAL
CONTROL
TYPES OF AGENTS
• Predators
• Parasites
• Nematodes
• Protozoa
• Pathogenic micro-organism
 PREDATORS
Mainly free-living species that directly consume a
large number of preys during their whole lifetime.

Ladybug and in particular their larvae which are

active between may and june in the northern
hemisphere are voracious predators of aphids ,
and it will consume mites , scale insects and
small catterpillar
 PARASITES
Their lays eggs on or in the body of an insect host ,
which is then used as a food for developing larvae.

The host is ultimately killed.

Most insect parasitoids are wasps or flies , and

usually have a very narrow host range.
 NEMATODES
One of the most abundant groups of living animals
and although morphologically they are very
simple but they have exploited a wide range of
diverse habitats including invertebrates

It usually considered as pests because of the

diseases they cause in humans and animals and
the economic impact they have on many
agricultural products
 PROTOZOA
One-celled life forms . There are some species that
responsible for serious human disease . ( Malaria
which is vectored by mosquitoes )

Most of the entomopathic protozoa species can

cause chronic infections that weaken but do not
kill their host
 PATHOGENIC
MICRO-ORGANISM
 Include bacteria , fungi , and viruses

They kill or debilitate their host and they also

relatively host-specific

There is various microbial insects diseases occur

naturally , but may also be used as biological
pesticides
 BACTERIA
Used for bilogical control infect insects through
their digestive tracts

The insects with sucking mouth parts like aphids

and scale insects are difficult to control with
bacterial biological control
 FUNGI

Successfully used to protect crops from a variety

of pests

They can infect a wide range of insect hosts

 VIRUS
Obligate diseases which causing organism that
can only reproduce within a host insect .

Can provide safe , effective and sustainable

control of a variety of insects pests , although
they are most effective as part of a diverse
integrated pest management program
METHOD IN
BIOLOGICAL
CONTROL
 METHOD
1. INTRODUCTION

2. CONSERVATION

3. AUGMENTATION
 INTRODUCTION
• Advisable to introduce an exotic species of a
natural enemy either when there is an
unoccupied a niche and is required to be
displaced by a more efficient exotic species.
• The former is a common situation in newly
i n t r o d u c e d p e s t i n a c o u n t r y. F o r e i g n
explorations for parasites and predators have
been made primarily to introduce parasites from
the place of the pest and sometimes to introduce
exotic natural enemies of the indigenous pest
species.
 CONSERVATION
The avoidance of measures that destroy natural
enemies and the use of measure that increase
their longevity and reproduction of the
attractiveness of an area to natural enemies are
properly conserved the need for other control
measures is greatly reduced
Ø Preservation of inactive stages:
The most critical when there is small reservoir
of natural enemies outside the cropped area e.g.
Pupea of Epipyrops are found in large numbers on
the trashes of sugarcane leaves at the time of
harvesting. These are left around harvested fields
to augment the supply of natural enemies in the
pre-monsoon season against pyrilla.

Ø Avoidance of harmful cultural practices:

Cultural practices like burning can harmful the
natural enemies e.g. burning of sugarcane trashes
destroy the resting stage of Epipyrops. Such
practices can be modified to avoid harmful effects.
Ø Maintenance of diversity:
The concept more the diversity more is the
stability holds true because diverse system may
provide alternate hosts as source of food, ever
wintering sites, refuges etc. e.g. mixed cropping,
intercropping etc.

Ø Natural food, artificial food supplements and

shelter:
Many parasites and predators require food
frequently not available in monoculture. The
availability of predatory mites was related to the
availability of pollen. Artificial honey dew and pollen
in the form of food sprays induced early ovipositor
of Chrysopea sp.
Ø Protection from pesticides:
All pesticides have adverse effects on natural
enemies. The solution lies in the use of relatively
resistant strains of natural enemies and selective
use of pesticides.
 AUGMENTATION
• Includes all activities designed to increase the
number or effect of existing natural enemies.
• These objectives may be achieved by releasing
additional numbers of a natural enemy into a
system or modifying the environment in such a
way as to promote greater number or
effectiveness.
• These releases differ from introduction of
imported natural enemies in that, these have to
be repeated periodically.
• The periodic releases may be either inoculative
or inundative.
 PERIODIC
RELEASE
OF
AUGMENTATION
Ø Inoculative release:
Inoculative release may be made as
infrequently as once a year to reastablish a species
of natural which is periodically killed out in an area
by unfavourable conditions part of a year.

Ø Inundative release:
Inundative release involves mass culture and
release of natural enemies to suppress the pest
population directly. These are most economical
against pests that have only one or few discrete
generations every year e.g. massive release of
Trichogramma sp.
 ADVANTAGES
• Effective to any biological control
• Specific strategy
• Creates no chemical run-off in waterways
or soil pollution
• Target a narrow range of pests ,
sometimes even a single species
• Selectivity
 DISADVANTAGES
• Sometimes unpredictable

• Slow process

• Selectivity
 CONCLUSION

• Used the biological control agents with the

emergence of pest
• Traps can be used for monitoring and
suppression of pest population
• Farmers should practice biological control in
order to reduce pollution because its better to
used chemicals to control the pests.
THANK
YOU