Chapters authored
Using Semiochemicals for Coleopterean Pests in Sustainable Plant Protection
Since the early twentieth century, chemical industry provides farmers large amounts of synthetic chemicals used as fertilizers and pest control products. Agriculture became intensive and the crop yields and the profit increased dramatically. Tons of toxic material for crop protection and fertilization were scattered through the gardens, fields, and orchards. But all these chemicals affect the environment, with serious negative consequences for humanity, today and tomorrow. Since 1959 until today many researchers observed and discussed the disadvantages of chemical methods of combating harmful insects and misapplied their disruptive action on cultivated ecosystems. Integrated pest management (IPM) is a process used to solve pest problems with minimum risks to people and environment. The objective of the researches presented in this chapter is to obtain and testing “semiochemicals”—pheromones, involved in intraspecific communication, into environmentally compatible strategies, to reduce pest populations under economic damage thresholds. Insect that are monitored and mass trapped in proposed IPM strategies are potato pest, Colorado potato beetle, Lepidoptera decemlineata Say (Coleoptera, Chrisomelidae); corn pests, West Corn Rootworm Diabrotica virgifera virgifera (Coleoptera, Chrisomelidae); and six-spined bark beetle Pityogenes chalcographus (Coleoptera, Scolitydae) pest in coniferous forests.
Part of the book: Integrated Pest Management (IPM)