The aim of this technical brief is to summarize the results obtained from the laboratory and field trials conducted on birth control for insects in minimizing the impacts of fruit flies on horticulture. Several species of fruit flies belonging to Tephritidae family have a greater impact on global agriculture specially horticulture trade than almost any other pest. The introduction of fruit fly ...

Research on crop systems and biodiversity conservation in the tropics has mainly been concerned with how low to mid intensity agricultural systems can benefit from adjacent natural habitats by receiving ecosystem services from natural biodiversity. One intensively studied crop in this framework is coffee. Positive effects are relatively easy to quantify by comparing coffee yield and by recordin...

In the present review article various control methods for stored grain insects are discussed in detail and an emphasis was made to use non-chemical methods. Stored grain infestation is a very serious problem as various life stages of insects cause economic damage and deteriorates the quality of food grains and food products. There are number of stored grain insect pests that infest food grains ...

In his seminal 1954 paper on the ‘population consequences of life history phenomena’, Cole noted that ‘these computations may have practical value in dealing with valuable or noxious species’. In the present paper, the question is asked: ‘is research based on evolutionary perspectives in general, and life history theory specifically, really useful for dealing with insect pests?’ Perhaps such th...

In agricultural systems, insect pests can cause crop damage mainly through loss in yield or quality resulting in a loss in profits for farmers. Worldwide pests cost billions of dollars due to damage and use of pesticides. Chemical pesticides are still the major approach for controlling insect pests, but they are associated with significant hazards to the environment and human health. The altern...

The invasive pest, Spodoptera frugiperda, commonly known as the fall armyworm (FAW), is a serious threat to food security in multiple countries worldwide. Insects’ antennal sensilla play crucial role perceiving plant odors and communication between male female insects. This study aimed examine morphology variations on antennae of FAW larvae adults through scanning electron microscope analysis. ...

Much previous research in pest management in canola has focused on developing strategies for reducing infestation levels of single pest species (e.g., bertha armyworm), or individual pest groups (e.g., insects) without regard to possible detrimental effects of these control strategies on other pests. The aim of our research has been to integrate insect management strategies with agronomic pract...

We continue our efforts on modeling of the population dynamics of herbivorous insects in order to develop and implement effective pest control protocols. In the context of inverse problems, we explore the dynamic effects of pesticide treatments on Lygus hesperus, a common pest of cotton in the western United States. Fitting models to field data, we consider model selection for an appropriate ma...