{"id":20956,"date":"2022-10-10T18:09:59","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T16:09:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/?p=68746"},"modified":"2022-10-10T18:27:09","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T16:27:09","slug":"biological-pest-control-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-what-happens-if-it-goes-wrong","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/biological-pest-control-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-what-happens-if-it-goes-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Biological pest control: what it is, how it works and what happens if it goes wrong\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Leoma Williams\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 10 October 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

What is biological pest control<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Biological pest-control is the use of a pest\u2019s natural enemy to eradicate it from crops, gardens and houses, and is an alternative to harsh chemicals or removal by hand. <\/span><\/p>\n

There are three types of <\/span>biological pest control<\/span><\/span>: <\/span><\/p>\n

  • Importation (introducing a new enemy into an environment)<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Augmentation (the boosting of natural enemy populations)<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Conservation (where a habitat is modified to allow the enemy to thrive).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>

    When has <\/b><\/span>biological pest control worked?<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

    There are many successful examples. Ladybirds have long been a popular control for aphids; cactus moths have been instrumental in constraining invasive prickly pears in multiple countries. <\/span><\/p>\n

    More recently, pig-tailed macaques in Malaysia have been found to be curbing rat populations in palm-oil plantations. The monkeys consume the fruit-hungry rodents at such speed that they are preventing significant crop losses.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Does <\/b><\/span>biological pest control <\/span><\/b><\/span>ever go wrong?<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

    Oh yes \u2013 and\u00a0 <\/span>spectacularly so. One famous failure was the introduction of cane toads to Australia in 1935, with the aim of controlling the beetles decimating sugar-cane crops. With would-be predators recoiling at their toxic skin, the toads started to multiply.<\/p>\n

    Today, they exceed 200 million and are highly destructive. To add insult to injury, there is no evidence that they had any impact whatsoever on the beetles.<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n

    ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Leoma Williams Published: Monday, 10 October 2022 at 12:00 am What is biological pest control Biological pest-control is the use of a pest\u2019s natural enemy to eradicate it from crops, gardens and houses, and is an alternative to harsh chemicals or removal by hand. There are three types of biological pest control: Importation (introducing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":20957,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/biological-pest-control-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-what-happens-if-it-goes-wrong.jpg",2295,1530,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/biological-pest-control-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-what-happens-if-it-goes-wrong-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/biological-pest-control-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-what-happens-if-it-goes-wrong-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/biological-pest-control-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-what-happens-if-it-goes-wrong-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/biological-pest-control-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-what-happens-if-it-goes-wrong-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/biological-pest-control-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-what-happens-if-it-goes-wrong-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/biological-pest-control-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-what-happens-if-it-goes-wrong-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Leoma Williams Published: Monday, 10 October 2022 at 12:00 am What is biological pest control Biological pest-control is the use of a pest\u2019s natural enemy to eradicate it from crops, gardens and houses, and is an alternative to harsh chemicals or removal by hand. There are three types of biological pest control: Importation (introducing…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/20956"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}