The use of biological control for the management of pest insects pre-dates the modern pesticide era. The first major successes in biological control occurred with exotic pests controlled by natural enemy species collected from the country or area of origin of the pest (classical control). Augmentative control has been successfully applied against a range of open-field and greenhouse pests, and ...

Honey-making bee colonies in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park were investigated with Batwa Pygmies locating 228 nests of Apis and five stingless bees (Meliponini). The relative importance of predation, food supply, nesting site, and elevation affecting abundance were studied for meliponines in particular. Nest predation and overall nest abundance had no correlation with elevation along a 1400 ...

The challenge of managing agroecosystems on a landscape scale and the novel structure of soil communities in agroecosystems both provide reason to focus on in-field management practices, including cover crop adoption, reduced tillage, and judicial pesticide use, to promote soil community diversity. Belowground and epigeal arthropods, especially exotic generalist predators, play a significant ro...

Generalist predators are widely acknowledged to contribute valuable levels of biological control in agroecosystems throughout the world. Although their feeding habits can result in the rejection of target pests in favor of preferred and often more nutritious non-pest prey, these natural enemies are capable of colonizing habitats prior to the arrival of pests by subsisting on alternative sources...

Over 2,000 alien arthropod species and about 30 alien non-marine mollusks are established in the wild in Hawai'i, While the data are too meager to assess fully the impacts of any of these organisms on the native biota, the documentation suggests several areas of critical concern. Alien species feed directly on native plants or their products, thus competing with native herbivores and affecting ...

Insecticides are widely used to control pests in agriculture and insect vectors that transmit human diseases. However, these chemicals can have a negative effect on nontarget, beneficial organisms including bees. Discovery and deployment of selective insecticides is a major mission of modern toxicology and pest management. Pyrethroids exert their toxic action by acting on insect voltage-gated s...

A key to healthy beekeeping is the Health Status Index (HIS) inspired by EFSA’s Healthy-B toolbox which we will make fully operational, with active collaboration of beekeepers, facilitating coordinated and harmonised flow data from various sources testing validating each component thoroughly. We envisage a stepby-step expansion participating apiaries, eventually cover all EU biogeog...