Biological control can be less or more expensive than pesticides. You can incur significant expenses studying, choosing, testing and breeding a bioagent. However, in cases where bioagents are applied to low-level pest populations, pest control can be long-term and economical. One of the major disadvantages of biological pest control may be that it takes a long time to actually control the pest population.
The advantages of biological control, ecology and applications are many. Biological control agents are environmentally friendly and have no side effects for humans. These methods are also comparatively cheaper than other agrochemicals, such as pesticides and insecticides. These methods are also easy to use, available and can be used in any season of the year.
The most important use of biocontrol agents is perhaps that they help reduce the use of chemicals and pesticides that have harmful effects on humans. There are also other disadvantages to using biocontrol methods. The use of biocontrol agents causes a significant and noticeable deterioration in the quality of the products. Biocontrol agents do not eradicate all pests and are a useful and economical tool for pest control only when used on a large scale.
There are some disadvantages to the use of biological control agents. First, they may be less effective than chemical pesticides in controlling pests. Second, they may take longer to be effective than chemical pesticides. Finally, they can be more expensive than chemical pesticides.
The use of Biocontrol agents is also called biological control and they are mainly used for the reduction of the pest population and produce yields that are free of any pests. Biological control agents are usually specific to the pest they are targeting, so they do not harm beneficial organisms in the environment. Bacteria belonging to the genus Coccobacillus are comparatively more pathogenic to insects and are therefore used for biological control. Biological control agents are usually insects, but fungi, bacteria and nematodes (eels) are sometimes used.
Potential biological control agents are found by examining weeds in their area of origin abroad and looking for damage caused by natural enemies of weeds. Biological pest control is the use of natural predators as agents to attack weeds, biological control agents are insects, but sometimes fungi, bacteria & nematodes are used, some fungi attack insects & kill them, fungal spore penetrates insect & grows along it, insect takes about a week to die, fungi are cost-effective unless a high application rate is needed for severe insect infestations. There have also been cases where the biological control agent, when introduced and not native, ultimately becomes a pest. There are many different types of biological control agents, including predators, parasites, and pathogens.
Biological control is a slow process, it takes a lot of time & patience for biological agents to work their magic on the pest population, while other methods such as pesticide work offer immediate results. The advantage of this is the long-term effect that biological control provides. Nematodes and nuts are most commonly used in biological flood control and prevent the implementation of invasive plants. The great benefit of this method is its selectivity, there is a restricted danger of damage to non-target plant species, biological control does not create new problems, such as conventional pesticides, selectivity is the most important factor with respect to the balance of agricultural ecosystems because a large damage to non-target species objective can lead to the restriction of populations of natural enemies.
Once potential biological control agents have been identified, they are tested abroad to ensure that they are host-specific, that is, they will not attack any plant other than the herb to be controlled and, therefore, will not become a pest if introduced into Australia. Potential agents are costly to test for specificity, host specificity tests can take many years to complete due to the need for thoroughness. Biological control operates over large areas, so it cannot be limited to individual properties or paddock. It does not eradicate the pest organism completely, because if the control agent reduces the pest population too much, it destroys its own food source.
It is the negative impacts of chemical pesticides that have led to new attention to a greater emphasis on biological control agents with respect to the use of fungi through the use of natural arthropod pathogens. The dead host is used by the larvae as a food source, since it is one of the most prevalent methods of biological control. Biological control has a slow action, lacks the immediacy of chemical control, therefore, for the required period until natural enemies control the pest population, pests may be present in intolerable populations, the agent may become a pest in itself, an input is needed frequent to maintain population balance and it has to be on a large scale. .
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