Biopesticides

Question 1

What are biopesticides?

Answer 1

Pesticides from bacteria, fungi, viruses, plant, or animal sources.

Question 2

Biopesticide pros and cons

Answer 2

Pros
- safe to humans as soon as dry
- no pre harvest interval
- prevents pesticide resistance
- no non target toxicity

Cons
- broken down by UV

Question 3

Are biopesticides getting more popular?

Answer 3

Yes. Half of new active ingredients registered since 2020 have been biopesticides

Question 4

What are semiochemicals?

Answer 4

Pest control that isn’t harmful to pests

Pheromones. Affects behaviour but not harmful

Question 5

mechanisms of semiochemical pest control

Answer 5

Desensitization
- release so many pheromones that the pest gets used to it

False trail
- attract the pest away from female

Camouflage
- synthetic pheromones mask female pheromones

Question 6

What’s a microbial biopesticide?

Answer 6

Microbe is the active ingredient. Like Bt

Question 7

2 types of semiochemicals

Answer 7

Intraspecific
- pheromones within a single species

Interspecific
- between species