Approaches to conserving natural enemy populations in greenhouse crops: current methods and future prospects
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Author
Messelink, Gerben J.
Bennison, Jude
Ingegno, Barbara L.
Tavella, Luciana
Shipp, Les
Palevsky, Eric
Wäckers, Felix L.
Publication date
2014-05-08ISSN
1386-6141
Abstract
Biological pest control in greenhouse crops is usually based on periodical releases of mass-produced natural enemies, and this method has been successfully applied for decades. However, in some cases there are shortcomings in pest control efficacy, which often can be attributed to the poor establishment of natural enemies. Their establishment and population numbers can be enhanced by providing additional resources, such as alternative food, prey, hosts, oviposition sites or shelters. Furthermore, natural enemy efficacy can be enhanced by using volatiles, adapting the greenhouse climate, avoiding pesticide side-effects and minimizing disrupting food web complexities. The special case of high value crops in a protected greenhouse environment offers tremendous opportunities to design and manage the system in
ways that increase crop resilience to pest infestations. While we have outlined opportunities and tools to
develop such systems, this review also identifies knowledge gaps, where additional research is needed
to optimize these tools.
Document Type
Article
Document version
Published version
Language
English
Subject (CDU)
632 - Plant damage, injuries. Plant diseases. Pests, organisms injurious to plants. Plant protection
Pages
17
Publisher
Springer
Is part of
BioControl
Citation
Messelink, Gerben J., Jude Bennison, Oscar Alomar, Barbara L. Ingegno, Luciana Tavella, Les Shipp, Eric Palevsky, and Felix L. Wäckers. 2014. "Approaches To Conserving Natural Enemy Populations In Greenhouse Crops: Current Methods And Future Prospects". Biocontrol 59 (4): 377-393. doi:10.1007/s10526-014-9579-6.
Grant agreement number
EC/COST/FA1105/EU/Towards a sustainable and productive EU organic greenhouse horticulture/
Program
Protecció Vegetal Sostenible
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- ARTICLES CIENTÍFICS [2802]
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/