What is biological control? The advantages and main methods of biological control

1. What is biological control

Biological control is a method of using the relationship between species to suppress another or another type of organisms with one type of organism. It is a method of reducing the population density of harmful organisms such as weeds and pests.

2. The advantages of biological control

It has little environmental pollution and can effectively protect natural enemies. Play the role of continuous disaster control, low cost, safe to humans and animals, less resistant to pests, reduce the amount of chemical pesticides, and save energy.

3. The main methods of biological control

Biological control includes the use of insects, bacteria, viruses, birds, spider mites, hormones, and bacteria.

Use insects to control insects -the use of beneficial insects to eliminate pests. Such as: Trichogramma pine caterpillar (parasitic natural enemy) to control corn borer, Harmonia axyridis (predatory natural enemy) to control aphids, etc.

Use fungi to control insects and fungi to weeds-the use of pathogenic microorganisms of pests or weeds to control pests and weeds. Such as: Beauveria bassiana (fungus) to prevent and control lepidopteran pests; Bacillus thuringiensis (bacteria) to prevent and control lepidopteran pests;

Use viruses to treat insects-nuclear polyhedrosis virus (NPV), granulovirus (GV) and cytoplasmic polyhedrosis virus (CPV) to control Lepidoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, etc. larvae.

Use birds (poultry) to control insects-for example, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region uses starlings to control locusts, free-range ducks to control grassland locusts, etc.

Use spiders (mites) to control insects-such as: use Bangluo Xinfu (spiders) to control Myzus persicae; use Courgette Amblyseius and Chilean phytoseiid (predator mites) to control red spiders.

Using hormones to treat insects-the method of using female pheromones to attract males. Such as: Plutella xylostella sex lure attracts Plutella xylostella and so on.

Treating bacteria with bacteria-some microorganisms (beneficial bacteria) can secrete some antibacterial substances during the growth and development process to inhibit the growth of other microorganisms. This phenomenon is called antagonism. The use of antagonistic microorganisms to control garden plant diseases, and some have been successful, such as the use of Trichoderma harveyi to control white sclerotia. At present, the use of bacteria to treat diseases is mostly used for soil-borne diseases.