Saturday, February 18, 2012

5.4b)

understand the reasons for pest control and the advantages and disadvantages of using biological control with crop plants.


Biological control of pests:
In Australia to the norther american prickly pear (Cactus) fluroished.
No natural herbivore that ate the cactus in Australia so the introduced a new species = Moth
The moth ate away at the cactus, thus removing it from the agricultural land of Australia.
PROS: There are no toxic chemicals involved
      Less impact on man/ wildlife
CONS: Not 100% effective
      Difficult to control (always a danger that introduced species will find alternative prey and will not die out once pest has been removed)
      Difficult to match a preditor to the prey

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