Faced with the great challenge that agricultural producers have to produce responsibly, the imperative need to optimize resources arises to achieve sustainable production systems. Agricultural pest control methods are among the most important pillars that focus on the good management of agricultural production.
Research, monitoring, and knowledge about diseases and pest insects will undoubtedly contribute to better and more information on the various methods of controlling agricultural pests. In turn, this knowledge will allow us to generate adequate decision-making for our fields when choosing between one or another methodology.
Methods For Controlling Agricultural Pests
The use of agricultural pest control methods that works the entire pest season should be analyzed by producers to determine those weak points that can be improved, as is the case with the use of pesticides and the combination of their active components.
If you bet on applying massively a pesticide that eliminates the natural factors that control pests, you can aggravate the health of the crop.
Therefore, in the face of the various methods of controlling agricultural pests, it is necessary to carry out a prior analysis of the species, the crop, the soil, etc., to arrive at a profitable, modern, sustainable, and socially responsible agriculture. The most efficient methods are:
- Natural Enemies
This method consists of introducing a natural enemy into the environment so that it becomes established and can regulate the pest that we seek to control, and that affects our cultivation.
It is used in cases where the plague has come to colonize a new area, and therefore its natural enemies are not in it. The problem with this method is that not all-natural enemies tend to settle in the area. Therefore, it is used in stable environments where there are no great variations in vegetation.
- Pheromones
Compounds that are naturally produced by insects that, when released into the environment in large quantities, generate different anomalies in the behavior of pests, reducing their reproduction rates.
- Insect Traps
Traps that physically capture insects. There is always an attractant like light, a sugary substance, or even pheromones, through which the plague is trapped and dies.
- Chemical Insecticides
It is the most widely used control method to keep pest at bay, both in intensive and extensive crops. Some insecticides belong to different chemical families, differentiated by the metabolic site where they affect pests.
For its use, it is recommended to make the decision based on a monitoring of the crops that determines the pest’s presence, abundance, and growth stage.
