Biological Pest Control – Is it the Answer to Pest Control ?

Before we can get into trying to understand whether biological pest control is the answer to the pest-control related environmental concerns. It would be proper to give ourselves a little background information on this whole pest control business. For the benefit of those who may be encountering it for the very first time.

Now, pests are organisms (typically insects) that are injurious to the interests of the people who refer to them as such. Thus to farmers, the insects that invade and eat up their crops (whether in the fields or during storage), would be termed as pests. On the other hand, the ‘domestic insects’ that tend to mess up with things in domestic settings (like moths, that can mess up with cloths in storage), are seen as pests by housekeepers. Worth keeping in mind is that although most pests are insects, there are also quite are number that are non-insects. With the likes of rodents (that can mess up with crops in farms of things stored in domestic settings). See as pests too, the fact that they are not insects notwithstanding.

Having seen that pests are injurious. It would be natural that the people who happen to ‘fall victim’ to them would want to get rid of them. In the meantime, people who haven’t yet fallen victim to pests would be keen to avoid such a ‘fate’. Hosting pests, by the way, can a serious fate: thousands of hectares of farmland have been know. To be wast by pests in a single day, leading to losses that often run into millions of dollars. It is the steps take to avoid pest invasion then, or to resolve pest invasion. If it has already take place, that are refer to as constituting pest control.

Now pest control takes various forms. Depending on the pests one is trying to get rid of (or to prevent the invasion of). And while bigger pests like rodents may controlled through mechanical means like trapping. For a long period of time, it is chemical control that has worked for the vast majority of pests. Which tend to be insects as previous mentioned. The chemicals used in this endeavor are what are termed as pesticides.

And while pesticides are usually very effective in pest-control. The downside to them tends to come up when we consider the fact that they tend to be extremely environmentally unfriendly. Worth keeping in mind, at this point. Is the fact that the chemicals referred to as pesticides tend to be very potent ones. So it often happens that traces of them remain where they were use, even after the pests are gone. Those traces are eventually wash down to the water bodies. Where they wreck great havoc to the (non pest) plants and animals resident in the water bodies.