Description
“Handbook On Biological Control of Plant Pests” by the staff of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New York. Published originally in 1960 by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, this is a third printing from 1972, so stated. Volume 16 Number 3 in the series, the book is a soft cover measuring 6 x 9 inches with 96 pages. It is in good gently used condition with wear / stains to the covers, the pages are clean and unmarked.
Synopsis
A frequent question asked at the Botanic Garden is “Why are there so many more plant pests now than there used to be?” The answer is, in part, that the concentration of a specific crop in a certain region brings a concentration of insects that more or less exclusively feed on that crop; it makes little difference whether it be wheat, cotton, citrus trees or roses. To control the pests, chemical sprays are widely used. For the longer term, future researchers are working on natural means of control, and some of these are already highly successful. In the pages that follow you can learn about means of eliminating or drastically decreasing insect pests by “biological control,” that is, through the introduction of their natural enemies – other insects which act as parasites or predators and, in sufficient numbers, will destroy the enemy – or, by the introduction of microbial diseases; or by the sterilization of males, etc. And in a still broader sense of biological control, a particular insect may be used for weed control. Weeds often outperform pestiferous insects as competitors against wanted plants. Their natural control is intriguing to contemplate. Man is a part of nature and as such he can scarcely upset the balance of nature, he can only shift it. Herein lies the great risk in man’s tinkering with natural phenomena; the extent of the shift is almost impossible to predict in advance. All life is in competition with other life, and our need is for greater wisdom in controlling our plant and animal competitors. The experts at the Botanic Garden have here provided many enlightening articles on the subject.
Please note: At Checkout the first shipping selection is always priority mail. Cheaper media mail shipping is also available for this book, just select media mail as your shipping option.