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| A wider view of Integrated Pest Management | |
| When designing new IPM (Integrated Pest Management) strategies to control insect pests, it is also important to take into account the interaction of a wide range biotic and abiotic factors involved in pest dynamics. IPM programs tend to involve various approaches to managing each key pest in an individual way and failures are quite frequent. The success of biological control depends on the interaction between the biological agent and the targeted pest as well as on a range of biotic interactions with other biological organisms (arthropods, fungi, plants, etc.). Even in a relatively simple "ecosystem" such as the green house production of roses, complex biological interactions can take place that significantly influence crop health. This study looks at the interactions between the two-spotted spider mite, its biological control agent (Neoseiulus californicus) and the fungal disease powdery mildew (Sphaerotheca pannosa). C. Poncet, A. Bout, M.-M. Muller, L. Mailleret. Direct and Indirect interactions between powdery mildew and spider mite populations in green house rose crops. ISHS Acta Horticulturae 797: International Workshop on Greenhouse Environmental Control and Crop Production in Semi-Arid Regions www.actahort.org Part of this interaction is likely to follow the discover in other crops that mites can suppress the level of powdery mildew attack by damaging the fungus and reducing the presence of fungal inoculum and sporulation from the existing powdery mildew of infected leaves. Apparently, in the ordinary feeding activity, the insect mouthparts of the mites, damage the mycelium and conidia, causing the collapse of a substantial number of fungal hyphae. www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Aug99/Mite.bpf.html In other cases, the presence of powdery mildew increases the population of mites and can reduce the predation level of biological agents aginst mites. These factors should be of interest to growers practicing biological production and to the suppliers of biological control agents. |
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