Answer :
Final answer:
To control pests when natural methods are insufficient, four methods can be used: Cultural Control, which reduces resources for pests; Mechanical/Physical Control, which includes barriers and traps; Biological Control, using living organisms like predators and pathogens; and Chemical Control, by applying pesticides.
Explanation:
When natural controls are not sufficient to manage pest populations, there are several methods that can be deployed. Here are four of the six available methods:
- Cultural Control: This involves altering the environment to make it less hospitable for pests by removing necessary resources such as food, water, and shelter, thereby reducing the conditions they require to thrive.
- Mechanical/Physical Control: This method includes activities like hand-picking pests off plants, erecting barriers to prevent pests from accessing plants, or using traps to capture them.
- Biological Control: This approach utilizes living organisms, such as predators, parasitoids, and pathogens to reduce pest populations. Examples include introducing ladybird beetles to suppress aphid populations or parasitoid wasps to target whiteflies.
- Chemical Control: Although often a last resort due to potential side effects, this involves the use of pesticides to reduce pest populations directly.
Combining these methods can lead to more effective pest control, potentially decreasing the reliance on chemical pesticides, which conserves the environment and can be cost-effective as well.
