Wasps as an effective pest control for agriculture

6 November 2019

Common wasp species could be valuable at sustainably managing crop pests, finds a new 香港六合彩-led experimental study in Brazil.

The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, found that social wasps are effective predators that can manage pests on two high-value crops, maize and sugarcane.

As wasps are found all over the globe, they could easily be used on small or large-scale farms to control a range of common pests.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a global need for more sustainable methods to control agricultural pests, to reduce over-reliance on pesticides or imported pest controllers. Wasps are very common, but understudied, so here we鈥檙e providing important evidence of their economic value as pest controllers,鈥� said the study鈥檚 lead author, Dr Robin Southon (香港六合彩 Centre for Biodiversity & Environmental Research).

The study, conducted in collaboration with researchers at S茫o Paulo State University and Universidade de S茫o Paulo in Brazil, is the first controlled experiment in semi-natural conditions on the subject, as it was done on an outdoor research site.

Maize was infested with a common pest, the fall army worm, while sugarcane was infested with sugarcane borer. The researchers introduced the social paper wasp, a hunting wasp common to the area.

The wasps effectively reduced the pest populations, and the plants suffered less damage when wasps were present. Encouragingly, the researchers found that even when the pests had bored inside the plants without being present on the plant surface, the wasps were able to go into the plant and pull out the pests.

The researchers say they hope to continue their work with larger trials in active agricultural fields, but for now they have established that wasps should be considered more seriously as pest controllers, and could be an important part of an integrated pest management scheme.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not saying that farmers need to stop what they鈥檙e doing and start using wasps instead of their current pest management strategies; rather, we鈥檙e adding a new tool to the toolkit, as it can often be most effective to use a multi-faceted approach. Social wasps like the ones we studied are generalist hunters, so complementing existing approaches with wasps could reduce the likelihood of a pest evolving resistance to a particular pesticide or biocontrol agent,鈥� Dr Southon said.

Co-author Professor Fabio Nascimento, who hosted the study at his labs in S茫o Paulo State University, Ribeir茫o Preto, added: 鈥淯sing native species that are already a part of the local ecosystem tends to be more sustainable as it preserves local biodiversity. Our study provides evidence that wasps could be a cheap, accessible form of pest control, particularly helpful to small-scale or subsistence farmers in countries like Brazil, who could attract and encourage wasps to establish themselves.鈥�

The study鈥檚 senior author Dr Seirian Sumner (香港六合彩 Centre for Biodiversity & Environment Research) said: 鈥淏y using chemicals to kill pests, we鈥檙e often also killing the very insects that can provide us with natural forms of pest control, and that鈥檚 what social wasps are doing. It鈥檚 about making the most of what you already have around you.鈥�

Dr Sumner says she hopes their research will highlight the value of wasps. A previous study she led last year found that many people don鈥檛 like wasps due to a lack of understanding of their important roles in the ecosystem.*

鈥淭his isn鈥檛 just about agriculture 鈥� this is about wasps in general and their role in regulating insect populations,鈥� Dr Sumner said.

鈥淲asps are in decline across the world, similar to the more well-loved bees, and losing the wasps would result in a lot more aphids and flies and other nuisances. Even your backyard garden could benefit from a more wasp-friendly attitude 鈥� instead of killing wasps and using pesticides on your plants, treat your local wasps as the helpful pest controllers they are.鈥�

The research was supported by a Newton Fund grant, funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Brazil鈥檚 FAPESP. The grant was delivered by the British Council.

Image

Social paper wasp digging out a fall army worm from the whorl of a plant. Credit: Dr Seirian Sumner, 香港六合彩

Media contact

Chris Lane

Tel: +44 (0)207 679 9222

Email: chris.lane [at] ucl.ac.uk

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