Last Update: 2 November 2017

Part I
The Biological Control of Pests M 110
The biological control of pests involves using natural enemies of the pest to control it - instead of
chemical agents like insecticides and herbicides. Not only should this be safer for the environment, but -
once established - the natural enemies might be able to sustain their population avoiding the need for future
treatments.
Most of the species that we consider pests are plants ("weeds") or animals (especially insects) that
have invaded a new habitat without being accompanied by the natural enemies that kept them in check in
their original home. With increasing international travel and trade, this problem becomes increasingly
severe.
The Biological Control of Insects
Cottony Cushion Scale Insect
In 1887, this insect - an import from Australia - was devastating the citrus groves of California. A
U.S. entomologist went to Australia to find a natural enemy and came back with the vedalia beetle, a
species of lady beetle. Released in California, the beetle quickly brought the scale under control.
At least until 1946. In that year the pest made a dramatic comeback. This coincided with the first use
of DDT in the groves. DDT not only killed the target pest insects but the vedalia beetle as well.
Only by altering spray procedures and reintroducing the beetle was the scale insect again controlled.

The Sterile Male Technique

This technique was first applied against the screwworm fly, a serious pest of cattle. The female flies
lay their eggs in sores or other open wounds on the animals. After hatching, the larvae eat the tissues of their
host. As they do so, they expose a still larger area to egg laying, often finally killing the host.
Prior to its eradication from the southeastern United States, the screwworm was causing huge annual
livestock losses.
The sterile male technique involves releasing factory-reared and sterilized flies into the natural
population. Sterilization is done by exposing the factory flies to just enough gamma radiation to make them
sterile but not enough to reduce their general vigor.
Starting in early 1958, up to 50 million sterilized flies were released each week from aircraft flying
over Florida and parts of the adjoining states.
Each time a fertile female in the natural population mated with a sterile male, the female layed sterile
eggs. Since the females mate only once, her reproductive career was at an end. By early 1959, the pest was
totally eliminated east of the Mississippi River.
Success depended only on the sterile males. In fact, the presence of sterile females was a drawback
(because they competed with the intended target), but it was difficult to separate the sexes.
The southwestern states presented a harder problem because the fly winters in Mexico and with each
new season could move across the border. Even so, by expanding the program to include Mexico as well,
the screwworm fly was finally eliminated from both countries by 1991.
The sterile male technique has also been used with success against several other insect pests, including
the "medfly", a destructive fruit fly (not Drosophila) in California
the tsetse fly, the vector of African sleeping sickness.

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Using Genetic Engineering to Improve the Sterile Male Technique

There are two problems with the sterile male technique

The factory produces both males and females in equal numbers. But if you release the females along
with the males, many males will mate with them rather than with wild females. For this reason, the
sexes are now separated - an expensive operation - and only males released.
Irradiation may harm the males in subtle ways - reducing their breeding effectiveness.

Genetic engineering may solve both these problems.

A group of British entomologists (see Thomas, D. D., et al., in the 31 March 2000 issue of Science) have
engineered Drosophila so that

only males are produced.

When these mate with normal females, the females give birth only to males (thus ending the
population).
The system works like this.
Transgenic flies are created containing a chromosome with
1. an enhancer (En) for a
2. gene (tet TA) that encodes a transcription factor that binds the
3. response element (tet RE), which is part of the promoter for a
4. gene (Toxin gene) encoding a protein whose product is lethal to the insect.
Only females produce the transcription factor that binds En.
If the antibiotic tetracycline is given to the insects, it binds to tet TA, producing an allosteric change
that prevents it from binding the tetracycline response element (tet RE).
The toxin gene is repressed and viable
females are made.
In the absence of tetracycline, the tet
TA transcription factor (green disk)
turns on the toxin promoter and no
females are produced.
Because the tet TA enhancer (En)
responds to a transcription factor made
only by females, males are produced
whether tetracycline is present or not.

If this system could be applied to an insect pest

(and most seem to produce the same female-
specific transcription factor [red oval]),

removing tetracycline from the food of a

batch of flies in the factory would
produce a new generation containing
only males.
Released into the wild, these would pass
their transgenic chromosome on to the
offspring of all the wild females they
mated with.
The genes are dominant so even though the next generation would be heterozygous, only males
would be produced.
Thus the pest population would soon die out.
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It remains to be seen whether this system, which works so well in the laboratory, can be transferred to insect
pests of economic importance.

Male Confusion
Insect sex attractants have also been enlisted in the fight against harmful insects. Distributing a sex attractant
throughout an area masks the female's own attractant so the sexes fail to get together. This is called
"communication disruption" or "male confusion". In some cotton-growing areas, male confusion with the
sex attractant of the pink bollworm reduced the need for conventional chemical insecticides by 90%. It has
been used successfully against pests that attack tomatoes, grapes, and peaches.
Parasites vs Insect Pests
Parasites, as well as predators, have been used to achieve control over destructive insects. The
bacterium Bacillus popilliae is supplied commercially to help control the Japanese beetle by infecting it
with "milky disease". Bacillus thuringiensis ("Bt") is sold commercially to aid in controlling a number of
harmful insects. In some cases, the bacterium itself infects the pests and eventually kills them. But in most
cases, it is the toxin manufactured by the bacterium while it is growing in culture that does the job.

The Biological Control of Plants

Prickly-pear Cactus (Opuntia)
Introduced into Australia, this cactus soon spread of millions of hectares of range land driving out forage
plants.
In 1924, the cactus moth, Cactoblastis cactorum, was introduced (from Argentina) into Australia.
The caterpillars of the moth are voracious feeders on prickly-pear cactus, and within a few years, the
caterpillars had reclaimed the range land without harming a single native species.
However, its introduction into the Caribbean in 1957 did not produce such happy results. By 1989,
the cactus moth had reached Florida, and now threatens 5 species of native cacti there.

Klamath Weed
In 1946 two species of Chrysolina beetles were introduced into
California to control the Klamath weed (also known as St. Johnswort,
and the same plant that yields the popular herbal concoction) that was
ruining millions of acres of range land in California and the Pacific
Northwest. Before their release, the beetles were carefully tested to
make certain that they would not turn to valuable plants once they had
eaten all the Klamath weed they could find.
The beetles succeeded beautifully, restoring about 99% of the
endangered range land and earning them a commemorative plaque at
the Agricultural Center Building in Eureka, California. (Photo courtesy
of John V. Lenz.)

Rules to Live
Pick only candidates that have a very narrow target preference; i.e., eat only a sharply-limited range
of hosts
Test each candidate carefully to be sure that once it has cleaned up the intended target, it doesn't turn
to desirable species.
Don't use bio controls against native species.
Avoid introducing alien species into the environment.

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