Pest & their management in arthropods
Answers
Arthropod pests are hosts to many natural enemies. Although crop habitats frequently are disturbed by production activities, populations of numerous species of predators, parasitoids, and pathogens can adjust and cause pest mortality. Many predator species are especially adaptable to disturbed crop habitats and provide important natural mortality to arrays of crop pest species. For example, many ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) species are important generalist predators. Way and Khoo (1992) reviewed the role of ants in pest management.
Combined abiotic and biotic mortality sometimes is sufficient to prevent pest outbreak. At other times, natural mortality reduces the severity of a pest outbreak. Conservation of natural enemies through the reduction and selective use of pesticides is a primary objective of IPM.