Quality Control and Production of Biological Control Agents Theory and Testing Procedures
Readership
Entomology, ecology, crop protection and pest management
Key Features
Addresses the following topics:
• Mass production and artificial rearing of natural enemies
• Pathogens of mass produced natural enemies and pollinators
• Quality control of natural enemies used for pest control
• Guidelines and statistical methods for quality control
• Natural enemy behaviour
• Parasitoids, predators, microbial pesticides
• Population ecology and genetics
• Management of small populations
• Risk assessment of natural enemies
Main Description
The use of biological control agents has been increasing worldwide and there are now many companies mass-producing such organisms, particularly for the control of insect pests. However, there is a great need for quality control in the production and use of these natural enemies, which include insect parasitoids and predators, fungi and viruses. This book has been written by leading scientists from Europe and North America to provide both background theory and practical guidance on this subject.
Reviews
• "The book is a most useful compendium of knowledge of the commercial biological control industry in industrialized countries."J H Frank, Florida Entomologist, 87(1), 2004
• "This is a serious and scholarly work that will serve as a foundation for what I view as a new field in biological control, namely the definition and maintenance of quality in natural enemies reared for biological control....There is much work to be done in the field of quality control in biological control agents, but all future work will likely start from the foundation laid by this book."
David R Gillespie, Biocontrol Science and Technology, 14(5), 2004
• "This book is extremely well written and edited. It is a "must" purchase for practitioners, educators, and researchers that are involved in biological control, whether it be implementing programs or conducting applied or basic research with biological control agents.
Raymond A Cloyd, Entomological News, 114(4), 2003
Main Contents
• Need for quality control for mass produced biological control, J C van Lenteren
• Aspects of total quality for the production of natural enemies, N C Leppla, University of Florida, USA
• A variable-response model for parasitoid foraging behaviour, L E M Vet, Wageningen University, The Netherlands, W J Lewis, USDA-ARS, Georgia, USA, D R Papaj, University of Arizona, USA and J C van Lenteren
• Variations in natural enemy foraging behaviour: essential element of a sound biological control theory, W J Lewis, USDA-ARS, Georgia, USA, L E M Vet, Wageningen University, The Netherlands, J H Tumlinson, USDA-ARS, Florida, USA, et al
• The parasitoids' need for sweets: sugars in mass rearing and biological control, F L Wδckers, Netherlands Institute of Ecology, The Netherlands
• Managing captive populations for release: a population genetic perspective, L Nunney, University of California, USA
• Adaptive recovery of fitness reduction: the role of population size, R F Hoekstra, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
• The use of unisexual wasps in biological control, R Stouthamer, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
• Comparison of artificially vs. naturally reared natural enemies and their potential for use in biological control, S Grenier, Institut National des Sciences Appliques, France and P DeClerq, Ghent University, Belgium
• Pathogens of mass-produced natural enemies and pollinators, S Bjψrnson, Sant Mary’s University, Nova Scotia, Canada and C Schόtte, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
• Commercial availability of biological control agents, J C van Lenteren
• Mass production, storage, shipment and release of natural enemies, J C van Lenteren and M G Tommasini, Centrale Ortofrutticola, Italy
• Regulation of import and release of mass produced natural enemies: a risk assessment approach, J C van Lenteren, D Babendreier and F Bigler, Swiss Federal Research Station, Switzerland, et al
• Quality assurance in North America: merging customer and producer needs, C S Glenister, IPM Laboratories, Inc, USA, A Hale, Nature’s Alternative International, Canada and A Luczynski, Biobugs Consulting Ltd, Canada
• State of affairs and future directions of product quality assurance in Europe, K J F Bolckmans, Berkel and Rodenrijs, The Netherlands
• The relationship between results from laboratory product control tests and large cage tests where dispersal of natural enemies is possible: a case study with Phytoseiulus persimilis, S Steinberg and H Cain, Bio-Bee Biological Systems, Sde Eliyahu, Israel
• Quality of augmentative biological control agents: A historical perspective and lessons learned from evaluating trichogramma, R F Luck and L D Forster, University of California, USA
• Towards the standardisation of quality control of fungal and viral biocontrol agents, N E Jenkins and D Grzywacz, CABI Bioscience, UK
• Guidelines for quality control of commercially produced natural enemies, J C van Lenteren, A Hale, Nature’s Alternative International, Canada, J N Klapwijk, Berkel and Rodenrijs, The Netherlands, et al
• Basic statistical methods for quality control workers, E Wajnberg, INRA, France
