Natural Enemies
These organisms live inside their host and eventually kill it, often used in biological pest control.
What are parasitoids?
This type of pest control uses naturally occurring enemies, rather than synthetic chemicals, to maintain pest populations below damaging levels.
What is biological control?
These tiny flying insects lay their eggs inside pests, and the babies eat the pests from the inside!
What are parasitoid wasps?
his principle of Integrated Pest Management emphasizes using multiple strategies, including natural enemies, to maintain pest populations below economic thresholds.
What is the ecosystem-based approach?
These small web-spinning creatures eat flies, mosquitoes, and other pests.
What are spiders?
Fungal, bacterial, or viral pathogens that infect and kill pests fall under this category of biological control agents.
What are pathogens?
This tiny predator is commonly used in greenhouses to control spider mites.
What is a predatory mite (like Phytoseiulus persimilis)?
These helpful animals eat pests like caterpillars and bugs. Spiders and birds are examples.
What are predators?
Farmers plant flowers and grasses near crops to attract these helpful insects.
What are natural enemies (or beneficial insects)?
Farmers can grow flowers near crops to attract insects like ladybugs and lacewings. This is an example of this type of biological control.
What is conservation biological control?
This method of pest control involves the introduction of natural enemies to a new environment to manage invasive pests.
What is classical biological control?
Aphids can be naturally controlled by this beetle, often referred to as a "beneficial insect" by gardeners.
What is a ladybug?
Instead of spraying chemicals, farmers can use these natural helpers to control pests.
What are natural enemies?
This type of pest control lets nature do the work without using harmful sprays.
What is biological control?
When a natural enemy is mass-reared and released in large numbers to quickly reduce a pest population, this strategy is being used.
What is inundative release?
This term describes when natural enemies are conserved or enhanced through habitat management to increase pest suppression.
What is conservation biological control?
The three main types of natural enemies used in pest control are predators, parasitoids, and these microbial agents.
What are pathogens?
This kind of bug, often called a "good bug," helps farmers by stopping "bad bugs."
What is a beneficial insect?
Tiny wasps, ladybugs, and spiders help farmers by doing this to pests.
What is controlling (or eating) them?
This term describes the phenomenon where a pest population rebounds to higher levels after pesticide use disrupts natural enemy populations.
What is pest resurgence?
This small green insect is a pest that sucks sap from plants—but luckily ladybugs love to eat them!
What is an aphid?
These flying creatures help control pests at night by eating tons of insects, including mosquitoes.
What are bats?
Instead of using bug spray, farmers sometimes release more of these “good bugs” to eat the “bad bugs.”
What are natural enemies?
What are some natural enemies Cincinnati may have?
what are lacewings, hover flies, ladybugs, and certain beetles?
This concept describes how the presence of multiple natural enemies can lead to interference, reducing their effectiveness in pest control.
What is intraguild predation?