Biological Control of Pests teaches you to use biological controls to manage insect, weed, and plant disease pests.

Concepts of biological control and the history of its use will be covered, as well as organisms used in biological control, such as parasitic wasps, predatory beetles, bacterial pathogens, and herbivorous fish.

You'll learn the introduction, augmentation, and conservation of natural enemies and the latest ways to monitor and evaluate biological programs. We will discuss the role of government in biological control, and explore how biological control fits into Integrated Pest Management.

Course Goals

• know how crop producers can protect the natural enemies of the pest they're trying to control by avoiding or reducing practices harmful tothat pest's natural enemies;
• understand under what circumstances you'd want to bring in a biological control gradually, introducing a few and letting them grow, and under what circumstances you'd want to inundate an area immediately;
• know what it takes to develop a natural enemy introduction program;
• be able to compare and evaluate the benefits of horizontal and vertical pathogen transmission in insect populations, and decide, based on the situation, which to use;
• gain an understanding of how governmental policies can harm and benefit biological control programs;
• have the latest information on natural or ecological methods of pest management;
• gain tools to explore when biocontrol is the answer - and when it isn't;
• gain knowledge of theory, principles, and practices of using parasitoids, predators, herbivores, and pathogens of pests to manage their abundance and reduce the damage they cause crops and other commodities;
• be able to explain why understanding insect population regulation theory is necessary for planning and evaluating a biological control program.

Instructor

Dr. Steve Danielson
211 Plant Industry, East Campus
402-472-8693
sdanielson1@unl.edu