Biorational Pest Control – An Overview

Fifty years ago, Stern et al. (1959) introduced the concept of “Integrated Control” during a time when insect pest control was mostly based on broad-spectrum, conventional insecticides such as organochlorines, organophosphates (OPs), and carbamates, all neurotoxic. Their work on economic thresholds and economic injury levels implemented within an ecological framework where chemical and biological controls could thrive together is the basis for the modern day Integrated Pest Management (IPM) concept. However, along the way, IPM’s overdependence on these broad-spectrum insecticides led to criticism that IPM was nothing more than Integrated Pesticide Management (e.g. Ehler 2006). Severe adverse effects of pesticides on the environment, problems of resistance reaching crisis proportions, and public protests have driven demand for alternative pest control tactics. With advances in the development of biorational pesticides and other selective chemistries, there is now real opportunity to realize the “Integrated Control” concept that Stern and colleagues (1959) pioneered. Today, more than ever, tools of physiology, toxicology, and biotechnology can help us realize the vision of more holistically harmonizing biological and chemical controls.