The growing demand for reducing chemical inputs in agriculture and increased resistance to insecticides have provided great impetus to the development of alternative forms of insect-pest control. Myco-biocontrol offers an attractive alternative to the use of chemical pesticides. Myco-biocontrol agents are naturally occurring organisms which are perceived as less damaging to the environment. The...

The realisation that arthropod moulting and metamorphosis are controlled by juvenile hormones led researches to suggest that such chemicals might be used both against plant pests and animal parasites (Robbins, 1972; Connat, 1988; Dryden, Neal, Bennette, 1989). As the naturally occurring juvenile hormones are unstable compounds in the environment, hundreds of synthetic preparations are prepared ...

Although humans and arthropods have been living and evolving together for all of our history, we know very little about the arthropods we share our homes with apart from major pest groups. Here we surveyed, for the first time, the complete arthropod fauna of the indoor biome in 50 houses (located in and around Raleigh, North Carolina, USA). We discovered high diversity, with a conservative esti...

A five-year field study was conducted in Arizona to assess the long term impact of transgenic cotton expressing the Cry1Ac dð-endotoxin of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) on population densities of 22 taxa of foliar-dwelling arthropod natural enemies and on the effect of the natural enemy community on key pests in the system. Multi-year analyses of arthropod abundance revealed small, but statistica...

Arthropods cope with reduced oxygen and elevated carbon dioxide atmospheres with a reduction in metabolic rate, also called metabolic arrest. The reduction in metabolism lessens the pressure on the organism to initiate anaerobic metabolism, but also leads to a reduction in ATP production. The natural permeability of cellular membranes appears to be important for the survival of the arthropod un...

Bird and arthropod predation is often associated with natural pest control in agricultural landscapes, but the rates of predation may vary with the amount of tree cover or other environmental factors. We examined bird and arthropod predation in three tree-rich and three tree-poor landscapes across southwestern Ethiopia. Within each landscape we selected three tree-rich and three tree-poor homeg...

Over 10,000 arthropod species are currently considered to be pest organisms. They are estimated to contribute to the destruction of ~14% of the world's annual crop production and transmit many pathogens. Presently, arthropod pests of agricultural and health significance are controlled predominantly through the use of chemical insecticides. Unfortunately, the widespread use of these agrochemical...