Baculoviruses: Members of Integrated Pest Management Strategies

Abstract

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) can be defined as “an ecologically based pest control strategy that relies heavily on natural mortality factors and seeks out control tactics that disrupt these factors as little as possible” (Flint & Bosch, 1981). IPM began to be applied because the extensive use of chemical insecticides show different types of environmental damages, as development of resistant insects, the appearance of new pests, injury to bird and mammals populations and human health damage due to the release of toxic waste on environment and food contamination. The aims of IPM are to protect crops, with minimum cost and risk for humans, animals and ecosystems. The development and application of IPM requires the knowledge of how the ecosystem influences on pest insects and its natural control agents, and how to modify this environment to control particularly pest insects and avoid the related chemical agent's problems.