Biological control agents for plant diseases are currently being examined as alternatives to synthetic pesticides due to their perceived increased level of safety and minimal environmental impacts. Fungal biological control agents have several mechanisms of action that allow them to control pathogens, including mycoparasitism, production of antibiotics or enzymes, competition for nutrients and ...

purpose: this investigation was undertaken to evaluate the potency of metarhizium anisoplea as a biological alternative to the biological control of german cockroaches. materials & methods: the fungal spores were applied against the male and female german cockroach, using two bioassay methods, viz the submerge application and the injection. the data was analysed and the mean mortality was ...

root-lesion disease, which is caused by pratylenchus loosi , is one of the most important diseases currently impacting iran tea plantations. this disease causes great economic crop impacts. northern provinces, which supply much of iran’s tea production, have been especially hard impact by root-lesion disease.the purpose of this study was to biological control the nematodes as one of the main se...

Biological control of exotic invasive plants using exotic insects is practiced under the assumption that biological control agents are safe if they do not directly attack non-target species. We tested this assumption by evaluating the potential for two host-specific biological control agents (Urophora spp.), widely established in North America for spotted knapweed (Centaurea maculosa) control, ...

1 CSIRO European Laboratory, Campus International de Baillarguet, 34980 Montferrier-sur-Lez, France. 2 CRC for Australian Weed Management and CSIRO Entomology, Private Bag 5, PO Wembley, WA 6913, Australia. 3 AQIS, PO Box 606, Welshpool, WA 6986, Australia. Corresponding author: M. Jourdan . © CAB International 2008 Potential biological control agents for fumitory (Fu...

There is an urgent need in aquaculture to develop microbial control strategies, since disease outbreaks are recognized as important constraints to aquaculture production and trade and since the development of antibiotic resistance has become a matter of growing concern. One of the alternatives to antimicrobials in disease control could be the use of probiotic bacteria as microbial control agent...

The development and use of entomopathogens as classical, conservation and augmentative biological control agents have included a number of successes and some setbacks in the past 1years. In this forum paper we present current information on development, use and future directions of insect-specific viruses, bacteria, fungi and nematodes as components of integrated pest management strategies for ...

To examine the community-wide effects of introduced biocontrol agents on Kauai Island, Hawaii, we constructed quantitative food webs showing interactions among plants, moths, and moth parasitoids in a native forest. Eighty-three percent of parasitoids reared from native moths were biological control agents, 14% were accidental immigrants, and 3% were native species. Although parasitism by biolo...