DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF LAOAG

SCHOOL OF NURSING
LAOAG CITY

Advancement in Microbiology

Integrated Pest Management:

Role of Natural Enemies

Submitted to:
Mr. Danilo T. Vidad

Submitted by:
Lovelyn V. Ganir
BSN II-A

September 25, 2010

Role of Natural Enemies in Pest Manangement

Objectives:

I.

Define biological control.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of biological control.
Describe the characteristics of an ideal natural enemy.
Characterize the groups of natural enemies.

Biological control
A. Biological control is a type of pest control which involves the action of natural
enemies or beneficial organisms.
B. It can be natural biological control, where man does not actively manipulate
natural enemies or applied biological control which involves the use and
manangement of natural enemies by man.

II.

Advantages and Disadvantages

A. Advantages
1. Biological control, be it naturally occuring or applied is safe, permanent,
economical and nondisruptive to other elements of the ecosystem. However, it
is also the factor most likely to be disturbed by the employment of other pest
control tactics especially the use of pesticides.
2. The safety of biological control is outstanding, since many natural enemies are
host-specific or restricted to a few closely related species.
3. Relatively permanent because efficient natural enemies often continue to have
an effect year after year with little or no assistance from man provided they
are not interfered with, in some way.
4. Economical since, once efficient natural enemies are present, little may need
to be done other than to avoid disruptive practices.
5. Non-disruptive to other elements of the ecosystem because they do not have
any harmful effects on non-target organisms.

B. Disadvantage
Length of time required if applied biological control is to be implemented
because of the research and other initial effort involved in setting up.
III.

Characteristics of an ideal natural enemy.

A. Density dependent their effects increase with increasing host density and
decrease with decreasing host population. An ideal natural enemy is one that
does not permit the host or prey to increase to any degree after it has been
reduced to a low level.
B. Exceptional searcher and has a high reproductive capacity able to find the
host at very low densities and keep it there. Since very few natural enemies of
this nature are known, there is a need to rely on the integration of two or more
manangement techniques to keep the pest at non-economic levels.
IV.

Groups of natural enemies

A. Predators free-living organisms throughout their life.
kill their prey immediately.
usually larger than their prey and require more than one prey to
complete their development.
the most conspicuous forms, and are sometimes confused with
pests, tend to be generalist feeders.
a) Insects beneficial species like lady beetles, carbid beetles,
predatory grasshoppers and crickets, and water bugs.
b) Spiders prefer moving prey but some may attack insect eggs.
many species hunt only at night, others make webs and
collect whatever enters the web throughout the day and
night.
some species also search the plants for prey such as
leafhoppers, planthoppers, moths and larvae of stem borers
and defoliating caterpillars.
c) Other species of predators
Frogs, birds, etc. are also important pradators of some
insect pests.
B. Parasitoids/Parasites often smaller or about the same size of its host and
requires only one host/prey to complete development into adult. May attack
any life stage, but the majority attack eggs, larvae, nymphs, some attacking
pupae and relatively few attaking adults. Generally, smaller and more host
specific than predators. They could be:
a. Egg parasitoids; larval parasitoids; pupal parasitoids;

b. Egg-larval parasitoids in which the parasitoid egg is laid in the host

egg, but the parasitoid larva kills the host larva;
c. Larval-pupal parasitoid in which the parasitoid egg is laid in the
larva and the parasitoid larva finally kills the pupa;
d. Larval-adult parasitoid in which the parasitoid egg is laid in the
larva and parasitoid larva finally kills tha adult.
Parasitoids lay their eggs either in groups or singly on, in, or near a host.
When the parasite egg hatches and the immature parasitoid develop, the host
usually stops feeding and soon dies. In most cases, parasitoids become more
effective as host abundance increases. They can find their hosts even when host
densities are low.
C. Pathogens
1. Microorganisms naturally occuring as control agents;
a. Applied as microbial insecticides
b. Major groups are fungi, viruses and bacteria.
2. Fungi important organism for leafhoppers and planthoppers control;
outbreaks of the fungi Hirsutella Citriformis, Beauveria Bassiana, or
Metarhizium spp., can infect and kill 90-95% of a population of brown
planthopper in the filed. For caterpillar pests, the most striking disease
outbreaks are caused by the fungus Nomurea riley and populations of
these pests do not reach damaging levels when the fungus is present.
3. Viruses important control agents for caterpillar populations. The most
important are the nuclear polyhedrosis and granulosis viruses. Virusinfected caterpillars cease feeding and the body content liquefies,
bodies become flaccid and often hang from the rice plant. Outbreaks of
viruses in populations of leaffolders and cutworms have been
recorded.
D. Bacteria
1. Bacillus popillae and bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)
2. Bacillus popillae causes milky disease in white grubs while Bt is a
very pathogenic bacterium to many species of lepidopterous larvae.
3. Bt is being commercially used as a microbial insecticide.
Reaction
This study discusses the role of natural enemies in the management of pests in
rice. It describes the different groups of natural enemies, advantages and disadvantages of

using them as biological control agents, and management considerations in the

implementation of biological control.
Control by natural enemies or biological control is the core component of IPM
(integrated pest management) in rice and should be regarded as the first line of defense in
pest management. Biological control rest on the premise that parasitoids, predators, and
pathogens are able to maintain their hosts populations at lower levels than if they were
absent. It is important to realize that few insect pests occuring at low levels are helpful
for they provide food to maintain populations of beneficial species at levels which can
prevent damaging pest outbreaks.