Research being conducted at the University of Hull could help with future efforts to control pests without reverting to environmentally damaging chemicals, which also affect non-target creatures. The team behind the research believe their work will help farmers to accurately and quickly assess levels of parasitism by insect predators, which control crop destroying pests such as aphids – a process which is currently time consuming and unreliable.

image expired

Researchers at the university are working to compile a comprehensive reference collection of aphids and leaf-mining insect pests, and their associated insect predators, including hundreds of varieties of tiny parasitoid wasps.

Aphids are one of the most prolific pests affecting crop production, substantially reducing yields and making crops more vulnerable to disease. Parasitoid wasps kill aphids by injecting their eggs inside the insects; within days, the aphid dies and mummifies as the larva grows larger inside it. After around two weeks, the pupa becomes an adult and eats a hole in the mummified aphid's body to escape.

The researchers said their work will enable farmers to rapidly determine the type and rate of parasitism through examining a sample of pests taken from a crop. Using the information, the farmer can then decide whether or not intervention is needed, thus helping to prevent the overuse of chemical pesticides. 

The team hopes that its research will lead to the use of parasites as pest control on open farmland becoming common practice, as it is in agricultural greenhouses, which will potentially have a range of benefits for the environment and farmers. Experts have suggested a number of low-impact agriculture techniques, especially agroforestry, which is rising to prominence once more in France, have a range of benefits including supporting natural pest control in the form of small mammals, birds and insect predators. 

The two-year project at Hull is being led by Dr Darren Evans, Lecturer in Conservation Biology. Dr Evans is studying a range of crops, with a particular emphasis on those grown for food and biofuel used by industry in the Yorkshire and Humber region. He said, "Developing this system will let us detect insect parasitism rates so that we can better manage and enhance the environment. Using this approach, we will be able to predict pest outbreaks, reduce pesticide use and have an improved understanding of how to better manage the countryside for natural pest control.

"It will facilitate precision agriculture through maximising predictions and forecasts and will provide farmers with significant savings. The aim is to try to find win-win solutions both for farmers and biodiversity. It doesn't have to be an either/or situation."

The project will also attempt to predict potential changes in the atmosphere and the effect these will have on pest populations and predator activity. This will be done through in field experiments conducted in Yorkshire, rather than computer modelling.

The release of the researchers' findings will coincide loosely with the introduction of the 2014 European Union Sustainable Use Directive, which will require farmers to use pesticides more responsibly whilst promoting the adoption of natural pest control techniques.

Tweet