What are the biological control methods for aphids?
Aphids are the fastest-reproducing insects, commonly known as greasy bugs, honey bugs, etc., belonging to the order Hemiptera, including the superfamily Adelgoidea and the superfamily Aphidoidea. They are mainly distributed in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere and subtropical regions, with very few in tropical regions. About 4,700 species are known worldwide, and about 1,100 species are distributed in China. Let's take a look at the biological control methods for aphids below!
Damage characteristics of aphids
Most aphid species are oligophagous or monophagous, a few are polyphagous, and some species are important pests of economic plants such as grain, cotton, oil crops, hemp, tea, sugar crops, vegetables, tobacco, fruit trees, medicinal plants and trees. Because they repeatedly transfer and taste-test when migrating and dispersing to find host plants, they can transmit many kinds of plant virus diseases and cause even greater damage, including important pests such as the English grain aphid, the oat bird-cherry aphid, the cotton aphid, the green peach aphid and the turnip aphid.
Biological control of aphids
The biological control of aphids mainly involves protecting natural enemies. In nature, aphids have many natural enemies, including ladybugs, hoverflies, parasitic wasps, aphid midges, crab spiders, green lacewings and entomopathogenic fungi, and these natural enemies have a strong suppressive effect on aphids. Therefore, broad-spectrum pesticides can be applied as little as possible, and application should be avoided during peak periods of natural enemy activity. Where conditions permit, aphid natural enemies can be reared and released artificially.
Extension: Biological control
1. Use of natural enemies: The method of using natural enemies to control harmful organisms is the most widely applied, and natural enemies can effectively suppress the mass reproduction of pests.
2. Resistant crops: Resistant crops means breeding crop varieties with resistance to control pests and diseases, such as breeding potato varieties resistant to potato late blight.
3. Sterility control: A large number of harmful insects are reared into sterile individuals and released to mate with wild pests, causing the offspring to lose reproductive capacity.
4. Genetic control: By changing the genetic components of harmful insects, the vitality of their offspring is reduced, their fertility is weakened, or genetic sterility appears.
5. Cultivation control: Cultivation control means changing the agricultural environment to reduce the occurrence of harmful organisms.