 Crop-destroying pests have been a major problem for food growers for thousands of years. Today in the United States alone, more than 20,000 pest species including insects, weeds, nematodes, bacteria, fungi and viruses cause annual losses of over $12 billion. The sheer magnitude of the problem has forced many growers to seek different ways to control these destructive pests. When I came back from college and acquired my first grove, all of the work was done with chemicals. I'm not worried about the aid of the biological insects helping us. And it didn't take me too many years to find out that this really wasn't the total answer. Quite often we would spend $50 or $60 an acre for chemicals that wouldn't do the total job that we were looking for. So we were spending a lot of money per acre application on the groves, but we weren't achieving total success due to insect resistance. Insects are constantly evolving. They can rapidly now become resistant to many of the new compounds that are being used to control them. And it's unfortunate, but now that we have these, we are aware of these problems, we begin now looking at alternative methods of controlling pestiferous insects. Biological control is a natural alternative. It is the use of natural enemies such as parasites, predators and pathogens to control crop pests. The greatest advantage to this ecologically sound environmentally safe method is that once successfully introduced and established, the natural enemies become self-perpetuating control agents, effectively reducing the need for pesticide applications. Many of the most destructive agricultural pest species in the United States have been introduced from foreign countries. They have arrived with the millions of people who cross our borders annually, with commodities imported from abroad or by natural means. And because they often come without their natural enemies, they have been able to proliferate freely. In biological control, scientists identify the pest and where it originated, then they search for, collect and import its natural enemies and attempt to establish them here. We screen out these hyper parasites, of parasites. We check these parasites to make sure that they do not attack something beneficial. And then once we introduce them, we evaluate their impact on the pest. And if they show great potential to control that pest, then we further rear them either in the laboratory or in the field, if it's possible. And once established, then field collecting and redistributing them further within the states. It isn't that they wouldn't eventually distribute themselves throughout the state, but to speed up the time of effect from these parasites, we make additional releases throughout the state. The method is not new. Beneficial agents were first used with success in America in 1889. At that time, an exotic insect, the cottony-cushion scale, was destroying the California citrus industry. USDA entomologists were sent to Australia, home of the scale, to search for its natural enemies. In Australia, the vedalia beetle was found and quickly introduced into California. Within two years, the scale was under complete control. To this day, in California and other citrus growing areas, the vedalia beetle remains an effective beneficial agent controlling this scale pest. Classical biological control projects are completed once natural enemies establish themselves and control is achieved, as in the case of the cereal leaf beetle project. In 1962, federal and state officials adopted biological control methods to suppress this grain pest by using four species of parasitic wasps, harmless to humans, that attack the eggs and larvae of the cereal leaf beetle. Parasitic wasps were distributed from the Midwest to the East Coast, resulting in a savings to farmers of $14 million a year in pesticide usage and crop losses. The total project cost about $14 million. Over the years, parasitic wasps have also been used successfully against other pests, such as the citrus black fly and the Comstock mealy bug. Beginning in 1959, the USDA's Agricultural Research Service began importing tiny parasitic wasps from Europe to 11 Northeastern states, whose farms were suffering under the effects of the destructive alfalfa weevil, which was recognized as the most serious pest of alfalfa in the United States. With 20 to 30 million acres of alfalfa grown annually, another USDA agency, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, has worked with state and federal agencies, universities, grower organizations and farmers in the nationwide distribution of beneficial parasitic wasps, natural enemies of the alfalfa weevil. Female parasitic wasps lay an egg inside the larva of the adult weevil. When the egg matures, the young wasp grows and feeds from within the weevil, destroying it in the process. Twenty-five years ago, nine out of every 10 fields in the Northeast was being sprayed for this pest. In about a 10 to 15 year period, those parasites increased in sufficient numbers in the field once they become established to start affecting control to the point where spraying has been reduced to maybe one field out of every 10 is sprayed and that's not on a yearly, you know, year-to-year basis. The cost estimate savings to the growers in alfalfa production has been estimated just in those 11 states alone to be nearly nine million dollars annually. At the Niles, Michigan Biological Control Laboratory, cages of parasitized weevils are stored. When the wasps emerge, they're collected, fed with honey and stored in refrigerators. To ensure correct ratios of females to males, the wasps are sorted before their ship to locations around the country for release. The shipments are made to cooperators in states where the particular species of parasite is not already established. That communication is very important because he or she has to contact key officials in the state and essentially notify them that we've got these beneficial insects available. Many people are just interested in the economics of it. We've got a weevil problem. We want to cut down on overhead costs and so they're saying, what do you have? We'd like to try something else. There are other people who are interested in the program because of the potential hazards of using pesticides in the environment. There's also increased awareness that the number of pesticides appears to be diminishing because of regulations and restrictions and many of the growers realize that somewhere down the road they may not have as many to choose from. This field contains all sorts of living organisms and among them are predators and prey. We have lady beetles which feed on the pea aphids. We have lace wing larvae feed on aphids. We have damsel flies and surfid flies and minute pirate bugs. There must be 15 or 20 different species of beneficial insects out here that feed just on pea aphids. I for one believe that the utilization of these beneficial insects as biological control agents can be most advantageous to the farmer. The seven-spotted lady beetle is an example of a ferocious predator at work. It's victim, the soft-bodied sap-sucking aphid. Different species of aphids attack a variety of vegetables, field and orchard crops. Established colonies of the seven-spotted or C7 lady beetle already exist on the East Coast where they have exerted significant control over several species of aphids. A single beetle larva can consume from 800 to 1,000 aphids. By adulthood, one single beetle can consume as many as 5,000 of the pests. Good insects eating bad insects. A classic example of biological control at work. The beetles are reared for distribution in a USDA field station outside of Byron, Georgia. They're collected in large nets mounted in front of four-wheel drive vehicles. The whole idea of an aphid as a past is because it's high numbers in the field, a high density per plant. And with a size of C7, it eats a lot. It needs to eat a lot of aphids, which implies again that it can drop densities down dramatically in a field when it comes in and starts feeding. It eliminates the need to spray. In addition, it appears to have a high ability to disperse or able to spread from one field to the next to detect high densities of aphids or fields with high densities of aphids. After the beetles are collected, they're first machine sorted, then hand sorted and put in gallon cartons with about 4,000 beetles to each carton. In Byron, they're sent to the lab in Niles where they're put in large cages and placed on a diet of aphids, homogenized pork and sugar. Over a period of about 10 weeks, conditions in environmental chambers are modified to simulate the arrival of winter. After spending nine months in hibernation, as many as a million beetles can be pulled from storage and sent to other parts of the country for release. In 1917, a destructive insect was first found feeding on the inside of corn stalks in Massachusetts farm fields. The pest was the European corn borer. As a result of the finding, biological control investigations were immediately undertaken and by 1938, 24 species of beneficial parasites were imported to the United States. Among the most effective was a parasitic tekinid fly called Ladella tumsumae. The parasite lays its eggs in the opening of the corn borer tunnel on the corn stalk. Larvey travel down the shaft. When they reach the invading corn borer, they burrow inside and begin feeding from inside the host. After pupation, the natural enemy emerges as an adult from the dead corn borer. At the biological control laboratory in Mission, Texas, flies are mass produced by removing the larvae from corn stalks and placing them on a synthetic diet of pinto beans, wheat germ, vitamins, and salt. This is the same diet needed to mass rear the host corn borer. A parasitic wasp is also showing promise for control of the Colorado potato beetle. However, this wasp cannot overwinter. Therefore, additional releases must be made each year. And to date, the success story that we have in the state of New Jersey is where the researchers in the state of New Jersey have been able to demonstrate that they can control Colorado potato beetle on eggplant, on small acreages. We are working with cooperators particularly in the state of Massachusetts with a demonstration project on trying to use biocontrol in controlling the Colorado potato beetle. The primary purpose for rearing the Colorado potato beetle is to provide eggs for the small parasitic wasp that we use in the biocontrol project. The parasitic wasp will actually feed on an egg mass. The second method that the parasite destroys the eggs is to actually over-posit or lay a small egg inside of the Colorado potato beetle egg. That egg then develops into another parasite. Biocontrol takes time. That's for sure that it takes a lot of time, but the real payoff is that once you have a biocontrol agent established, it's there forever unless some unforeseen problem occurs. Once the organisms established, it's there forever. The great American Northwest, rich in beauty, natural resources, and weeds. In the state of Montana alone, the Extension Service reports that leafy spurge currently infests 550,000 acres of range land. Additionally, in just 60 years, spotted napweed has spread over 2 million acres throughout the state, averaging 33,000 acres a year. Both weeds result in annual range land forage losses of over $6 million. If left unchecked, the potential annual loss by the year 2010 in Montana is estimated at $155 million. This is a good example of leafy spurge sort of left unchecked. Leafy spurge is not native to North America, and this plant came to this country without natural enemies. And so, this plant, as you see around us, has enjoyed almost 100 years of development without natural enemies to impact upon its health. This location is typical, and usage of herbicides in a location like this would be very expansive for this landowner because of the very limited economic value or return from this type of land. Consequently, many of the acres within Montana and other range land areas control measures by herbicides are not being actively pursued because the ranchers simply cannot afford it. The seeds of leafy spurge are often fed upon by various birds, and those birds will fly to new locations, deposit those seeds in the ground, and that will start a new patch. The plant then, through its aggressive root system and through the production of new seeds, will establish dense stands. The aggressive root system of the plant is able to put up many new shoots from a single rootstock. In addition, as the seeds of the plant dry, they seed coat cracks and the seeds are literally propelled through the air, up to 15 feet from the parent plant. The spiny napweed plant has little nutritive value. In addition, because of its toxic qualities, it's generally avoided by animals. Competition from desirable forage is eliminated by the weed's aggressive growth and its ability to form dense uniform stands. Spotted napweed will aggressively invade well-managed range land. Once established, the weed can live up to 10 years, producing 1,000 seeds a year. It's an interesting problem because we're trying to make sure that our organisms we introduced do not impact upon endangered species of plants, but we also want to control these weeds because these weeds in themselves are impacting upon the endangered species. They're crowding out the native plants. Some of the weeds have leelopathic properties. They inhibit other plants from growing near them. So it's important that we control these weeds to not only protect our agriculture, but to protect endangered species. As we know more about the noxious weeds, about their life cycles, and how they react in an environment where they don't have any natural enemies, we're learning more about them and we're getting more education on them and realizing that it's going to take an integrated approach to controlling these things to actually see some long-term effects as the herbicides have their part, road sides, large patches where they're just getting established, that type of thing. But they have no place along rivers, environmentally sensitive areas and that type of stuff, or areas where you can't even get into and spray. So that's where we're looking for alternate controls such as biologicals. Biological control of some weeds can be achieved by the use of pathogens, which are tiny disease-producing organisms. For napweed and leafy spurge, however, the approach is to establish four or five beneficial insects on the weed, attacking different parts of the plant throughout the growing season. For spotted napweed, we have two moths that are approved biological control agents. One of them is a direct seed-feeding moth, and we have been able to acquire this moth through cooperative efforts with Agriculture Canada. Also we have for this year a first release of another moth that impacts on spotted napweed. This moth does not feed on seed, but it impacts directly on the plant by the larval stage feeding within the root system. We also have a beetle that is root-boring. We've been able to collect this beetle in British Columbia and effect releases in Montana as well as Idaho, Washington and Oregon on stands of diffuse napweed. The seed head fly, natural enemy of napweed, has been redistributed in Montana and other areas of the western United States since 1973. About one-quarter the size of the common house fly, the seed head fly lays its eggs in the seed head of the napweed. After hatching, the plant forms a goal which grows around the developing fly larva. This attack by the insect in turn keeps most of the weed seeds from developing. To quickly establish the seed head fly in weed-affected areas, bouquets of fly-infested napweed are placed on fence posts. When the adults emerge, they quickly spread to the uninfested napweed. Lay their eggs and the process begins again. For control of leafy spurge, approved beneficial agents include a goal-nidge fly from Italy, whose feeding activity in the shoot tip prevents flowers and seeds from forming. The longhorn beetle from Italy and Hungary lays its eggs on the stem of the plant. Beetle larvae feed in the stem and root crown of the weed. And then there are the three beetles from Hungary, Italy, Austria and Yugoslavia. The larval stage of these insects feed internally on the root system. The initial introduction and establishment of these biological control agents is perhaps the most critical stage of our biological control program on these exotic weeds. When one introduces these insects, one wants to select a site that will enhance the survivorship or survival of those agents. Everything looks good on the cage. We made our first releasing here two and a half weeks ago of 50 oberea, and we added another 25 to it. Look, here's feeding damage. Girdling and... We are trying to establish what we call field insecticides, an area where we make a release under a controlled situation, usually within a cage, on weeds that are growing out in nature. And the insects then propagating within that cage or in that local area will be the focal point or the beginning of larger populations that will develop in the weed stands in that area. And that's very exciting. It's a very small beginning, but if these beginnings would have happened 20 years ago, it would be well on our way to establish colonies and populations that would be exhibiting an impact on the weed problem. Biological control methods are also used in waterways where noxious weeds like hydrilla and alligator weed clog and trap debris, reducing flow and volume for irrigation projects. Recreation can also be hampered by aggressive weeds. Chemicals and dredging are sometimes effective in controlling the weeds, but they also tend to be expensive. What is proving cost-effective is a species of fish called the white amour. Used with success in the southeastern United States, California and elsewhere, this fish has a large appetite for weeds. Biological control won't work on every weed or pest, but where beneficial agents can be used, they are an effective tool in helping suppress pest problems and, as a result, substantially reduce dependence on chemical pesticides. Assisted by extension service personnel and other cooperators, growers are learning to modify pesticide applications and develop cultural practices that don't interfere with the growth and development of natural enemies. Today, conditions and attitudes dictate an increased emphasis on economical and environmentally safe alternatives for crop pest control, alternatives such as biological control, a natural alternative.