The importance of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and the maintenance of a natural control balance.
Beneficial plants can attract natural predators of pest insects, providing them with alternate food, nectar or even shelter.
Many beneficial plants can be established such as Antigonon leptopus, Turnera subulata, Euphorbia heterophylla and Cassia cobanensis.
In case of a pest outbreak at a time when insufficient beneficial plants have been established, Verdant’s entomologists can recommend pest control co adjuvant strategies.
Natural predators such as Sycanus cosmoleptes and Eocanthecona furcelatta actively kill leaf eating caterpillars (bagworm and nettle caterpillar) and therefore must themselves be maintained in the field.
The maintenance of pest levels below the ‘outbreak threshold’ requires the nurturing of natural predators by providing optimal ecological conditions for their development.
When necessary, Verdant’s entomologists will recommend trunk injection with a specific systemic insecticide to target the leaf eating pest only without disrupting the plantation’s ecology.
The use of synthetic pyrethroids (ie. broad spectrum long residual contact insecticides, or BSLRC’s) will kill insect pests, but will also kill non-targeted beneficial predators, and consequently may create an even more serious natural imbalance with potentially grave consequences for plantations (e.g. insufficient pollination insects / naturally uncontrolled more harmful pests).
Verdant’s entomologists can survey the affected areas and evaluate best solutions, using IPM combined control systems to bring the pest population below threshold levels, there by preserving the natural biological balance for the plantation ecosystem.
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