What is augmentative biological control?

Augmentative biological control (or “augmentation”) is simply the release of large numbers of insectary reared natural enemies with the goal of “augmenting” natural enemy populations or “inundating” pest populations with natural enemies.

What are the 3 types of biological control agents?

Introduction. Biological control is the use of living organisms to maintain pest populations below damaging levels. Natural enemies of arthropods fall into three major categories: predators, parasitoids, and pathogens (Altieri et al., 2005; Mahr et al., 2008).

What is augmentation in agriculture?

Augmentation is defined as periodically increasing either the number of parasites or predators or the supply of their food resources to assure that adequate numbers of parasites and predators are present to provide the desired level of pest control.

What are the four major ways of biological control?

The four major ways are by what has been called Augmentive Biological Control, Classical Biological Control (otherwise known as Inoculative Biological Control), Inundative Biological Control, and Manipulative Biological Control.

What is Inoculative release?

Releases of relatively small numbers of natural enemies, intended to promote the establishment of the enemy when the target-pest population is low.

What is an example of a biological control?

Examples of biological control include the destruction of the citrophilus mealybug in California by two parasitic species of chalcid wasps imported from Australia, Coccophagus gurneyi and Tetracnemus pretiosus; the effective predation of an Australian ladybird beetle, or vedalia beetle (Rodolia cardinalis), on the …

What are types of biological control?

There are three primary methods of using biological control in the field: 1) conservation of existing natural enemies, 2) introducing new natural enemies and establishing a permanent population (called “classical biological control”), and 3) mass rearing and periodic release, either on a seasonal basis or inundatively.

What is conservative biological control?

Conservation biological control (CBC) seeks to integrate beneficial insects back into crop systems for natural pest control. This strategy is based upon ongoing research that now demonstrates a link between the conservation of natural habitat and reduced pest problems on farms.

What is Inoculative biological control?

Inoculative biological control means releasing natural enemies periodically or seasonally to reestablish a balance that has not been maintained naturally or has been disrupted by other control methods.

What are examples of biological control?

Often, the natural enemies are found in the home range of the invasive pest. Some notable examples of classical biological control include the use of decapitating flies (several Pseudacteon species) against red imported fire ants, and a group of flea beetles, thrips, and stem borers used against alligator weed.

What are the methods of biological control?

Do augmentative releases and abamectin provide the most effective suppression?

Nevertheless, a combination of augmentative releases and abamectin applications provided the greatest suppression overall, both in comparison to abamectin alone and predator releases alone.

Is augmentation effective for pest control?

Nevertheless, a few studies clearly documented both efficacious and cost-effective pest suppression using augmentative releases. Finally, a number of different ecological factors may explain why augmentation is sometimes ineffective, the most frequently cited being unfavorable environmental conditions.

What is noculative augmentation in agriculture?

I noculative augmentation is when a release of beneficial is made on the crops once during the season and the control is ensured for the rest of the season by their offsprings.