Wasps v moths: Biocontrol uses nature against crop pests

[xchrom]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21043896


Humans may consider wasps a pest, but some can be used to protect crops

Blinking in the blazing Brazilian sun, a farmer looks up at the sound of an aeroplane, flying low over his sugarcane plantation in Sao Paulo.

A hatch suddenly opens, and a white cloud emerges.

It may look like pesticide, but these are live eggs falling down - from wasps.

Once hatched and grown, the insects inject their own eggs into those of the sugarcane borer - a moth that in its caterpillar stage eats valuable plants - preventing the pest from hatching.

[dipsydoodle]

1. Well I never.

I'd no concept of wasps being useful for anything.

[Downwinder]

2. Wasps

The term wasp is typically defined as any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor an ant.[1] Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their numbers, or natural biocontrol. Parasitic wasps are increasingly used in agricultural pest control as they prey mostly on pest insects and have little impact on crops.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp

[Nihil]

3. Fascinating stuff ...

... but the thought of being "sprayed" with live wasp eggs makes me shiver ...!