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History of Pests - - Black Plague: 14th century, Bacteria
- Irish Potato Famine: 19th Century, Fungal Disease
- Malaria: WWII 500,00 soldiers infected, 60,000 died, 2010: Malaria cases were 219 Million
Globally > mosquito nets & insecticide treatments
- Native Mountain Pine Beetle: Canada & United States, 4 million acres of pines destroyed
- Pests have been around since the beginning of Human Civilization
What is a Pest? - An undesirable Organism that injures humans, desirable plants, animals,
manufactured goods, and/or substances
Pest Control Throughout History - - Rudimentary Controls: pulling weeds, killing animals,
burning plants to reduce insects (950 B.C.)
- Egyptians: Fish nets over cups to prevent mosquito bites (440 B.C.)
- Romans: rat-proof grain storage (13 B.C.)
- Sumerians: Earliest chemical control recorded, sulfur to control mites (2500 B.C.)
- Chinese: mercury & arsenic (500 B.C.), mainly used for lice
- Early Plant Derived Control:
- Hellebore > lice
- Nicotiana (Tobacco) > aphids
- Chrysanthemum (Pyrethrins) > insects
- France 19th Century: lime & copper sulfate sprayed on grapes originally to deter people from
eating them, farmers realized that the treatment controlled Downy Mildew, still a widely used
treatment > no resistance showing today
- WWII: DDT given to soldiers, saved thousands of lives from insect bites, beginning of modern
chemical pesticides
,What is a Pesticide? - - Any material that is applied to plants, soil, water, crops,
structures, clothing, furnishings
- Anything used to kill, attract, repel animals.
- Regulating growth or interrupting mating of pests
- Plant growth regulators
Pest Method Control Methods - chemical, cultural, genetic, mechanical/physical,
regulatory
Chemical Control - - Most used method in use to date
- Synthetic or naturally derived
- Cost effectiveness
- Ease of use
- Mass manufacturing > maintain a certain threshold of the quality of the product
Chemical Control Examples - - Avicides: Kill or control birds
- Bactericides: Bacteria
- Chemosterilants: sterilization of insects or vertebrate
- Defoliants: take the foliage off of plants/release their foliage
- Desiccants: drying out effect of plant tissues/materials
- Disinfectants
- Fungicides: Fungi
- Growth Regulators: fruit production, slow growth, uncontrolled growth (most herbicides are
growth regulators)
- Herbicides: plants
- Insecticides: insects
- Miticides: acaricides (mites)
- Molluscicides: snails
- Nematicides: nematodes, roundworms
- Repellents: insects, mites, ticks, vertebrate, invertebrate, birds, animals
,- Ovicides: eggs
- Pheromones: attract insects/animals
- Piscicides: fih
- Predacides: predatory vertebrate (coyotes)
- Rodenticides: rodents
How Chemical Control Works - - Mode of action: how the chemical works, multiple
chemicals have the save mode of action, some have multiple modes of action
- Site of action: the specific biological component that is affected by the chemical (example:
nervous system, ability to product food)
Types of Chemical Control - Selective
- toxic to some pests, but not all
- very little effect on others
- common in turfgrass applications (applying herbicide designed to target broad-leafed weeds
applied to grasses > kill weeds, leave grass)
- herbicide applications: 2, 4, D & Triclopyr
Non-selective
- control any susceptible organism to that chemical (kill all)
- Glyphosate (herbicide)
- Bifenthrin (insecticide)
Systemic
- absorebed & translocated
- animals/plants
- eaten or injected (pill for dogs that kills fleas)
Contact
, - not absorbed
- direct contact to be effective
Persistance - How long chemicals remain active to control the desired pests - vary greatly
(some degrade in a couple of hours, others years)
Residual Pesticides - Control pests fro weeks, months, years
Some have minimal residual for short term control
- Only lasting a few hours
Cultural Control - Practices that:
- reduce pest establishment
- reproduction
- dispersal
- survival
Examples:
- mowing
- irrigation
- fertilization
Agriculture:
- Selection of crop varieties
- timing of planting
- timing of harvest
- irrigation management
- crop rotation
- trap crops