Nontarget pesticide impacts on pest natural enemies: progress and gaps in current knowledge

Abstract

Avoiding pesticide nontarget effects on natural enemies is a cornerstone of conservation biological control. Recent advances in this field have included increased examination of nuanced sublethal effects, including microbiome changes. There is an interest in lifetable-based approaches, while also simplifying results to reduce the amount of information a grower needs to interpret to make a judicious application decision. Newer pesticides are showing promise for selectivity to both natural enemies and humans. Major research gaps still remain, with few published studies on ground-dwelling natural enemies, herbicides, adjuvants, or pesticide mixes. Translating the results of laboratory assays to field-level effects remains a major challenge. Field studies examining entire management programs and meta-analyses of laboratory studies may begin to address this issue.