Physical Control in Greenhouses and Field Crops

At the end of the twentieth century the global population exceeded 6 billion human beings and it continues to increase exponentially. Worldwide, governments have been banning insecticides once thought to be crucial for pest control of food crops. Although this may seem absurd in the face of efforts to assuage world hunger, for the most part these insecticides have proven to cause intolerable environmental damage, or the insect pests they once controlled are now resistant to their effects, or the costs of registration are not justified by potential financial gains. Thus, increasing attention is being paid to alternative forms of insect pest control, such as physical/mechanical and biological.