FEATURE
Fighting insects
with insects
Biological control might currently
be restricted to niche crops, but new
products and technologies should
allow this crop protection strategy
to expand into many other markets,
discovers Jon Evans
Photo: Ward Stepman, BCP Ltd
C
hemical pesticides might be having of beneficial organism and generating sales Much of this growth is being driven by the
a bit of a torrid time in Europe at the of around US$55 million in 2000, according ongoing review of pesticide registrations by
moment – hit by the double-whammy of
to the market research company Frost & the European Commission, which has resulted
a generally stagnating pesticide market
Sullivan. Furthermore, the International in a number of active ingredients being
and increasingly stringent regulations (see page
Biocontrol Manufacturers Association (IBMA) withdrawn from the EU market or having their
10) – but biological control appears to be going
has predicted that the value of the European uses restricted. It is also being driven by the
from strength to strength. “For example, there
biological control market should increase to growing emphasis placed by food retailers
has been a very sudden expansion in the use of
US$70 million by 2008. and consumers on zero pesticide residues in
biological control agents in Almeria, Spain, from
food. Indeed, it was concern about pesticide
200ha to something like 6,000ha in one jump,”
Photo: Ward Stepman, BCP Ltd
says Richard GreatRex, R&D manager at UK-based
biological control company Syngenta Bioline. “That
is very rapid growth and, as far as I’m aware, this
year the majority of growers are succeeding with
this system.”
In biological control, crop pests are controlled
by the action of beneficial organisms, usually
invertebrates. Commonly used beneficial
organisms include: predatory species of
beetles, lacewings, bugs and mites, which eat
invertebrate pests; parasitic species of wasps,
which use insect larvae as hosts for their
young; and entomophathogenic nematodes,
which are tiny worms that infect insects and
multiply inside them.
Europe is the world’s largest biological
control market, consisting of more than 20
companies selling around 30 different species
www.agrow.com  •   November 2007 
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