how can we grow our food with fewer
harmful chemicals more and more farmers
are managing pests with natural
combatants called bio pesticides these
do the job of regular pesticides but
they come from natural sources like
insects plants and bacteria of all bio
pesticide sales in 2011 bio chemicals
such as scented plant extracts had the
largest share sales also included
microbials such as bacteria and viruses
more than 300 species of insects and
other combatants like pheromones and
roundworms these products are a small
part of the total pesticide market but
their share is growing as consumers
demand more chemical free food sales of
biopesticides are lowest in Africa but
in the 1980s one of them had a huge
impact on the region’s cassava crop in
1973 the cassava mealy bug was
accidentally brought to Africa from
South America and within a few years it
decimated the continents cassava crops a
staple food for millions of people
scientists looked to South America for a
natural enemy of the mealy bug
they found a special parasitoid wasp and
introduced it in Africa but how could a
wasp save the day while a mealy bug is
sucking sap from cassava leaves a female
wasp swoops in and lays its eggs in the
melee buck when the eggs hatch the wasp
larvae eat the mealy bug from the inside
out killing it the new wasp soon mature
and the process starts over again the
infestation took a few years to fully
manage but the economic benefits were
huge for every dollar spent on mealy bug
control one hundred fifty dollars were
returned to the cassava farmers this is
one of the best demonstrations of how
effective natural combatants can be and
wasps are now being used in Southeast
Asia to control their mealy bug problem
a solution derived directly from Mother
Nature and good news for farmers in the
environmental life
you
harmful chemicals more and more farmers
are managing pests with natural
combatants called bio pesticides these
do the job of regular pesticides but
they come from natural sources like
insects plants and bacteria of all bio
pesticide sales in 2011 bio chemicals
such as scented plant extracts had the
largest share sales also included
microbials such as bacteria and viruses
more than 300 species of insects and
other combatants like pheromones and
roundworms these products are a small
part of the total pesticide market but
their share is growing as consumers
demand more chemical free food sales of
biopesticides are lowest in Africa but
in the 1980s one of them had a huge
impact on the region’s cassava crop in
1973 the cassava mealy bug was
accidentally brought to Africa from
South America and within a few years it
decimated the continents cassava crops a
staple food for millions of people
scientists looked to South America for a
natural enemy of the mealy bug
they found a special parasitoid wasp and
introduced it in Africa but how could a
wasp save the day while a mealy bug is
sucking sap from cassava leaves a female
wasp swoops in and lays its eggs in the
melee buck when the eggs hatch the wasp
larvae eat the mealy bug from the inside
out killing it the new wasp soon mature
and the process starts over again the
infestation took a few years to fully
manage but the economic benefits were
huge for every dollar spent on mealy bug
control one hundred fifty dollars were
returned to the cassava farmers this is
one of the best demonstrations of how
effective natural combatants can be and
wasps are now being used in Southeast
Asia to control their mealy bug problem
a solution derived directly from Mother
Nature and good news for farmers in the
environmental life
you
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