Eggplant Integrated Pest Management AN ECOLOGICAL GUIDE

_____________________________________________________________________Ecology of insect pests and natural enemies4 ECOLOGY OF INSECT PESTS AND NATURAL ENEMIESSUMMARYInsect ecology studies insects in their environment. The environment (e.g. climate, food sources,natural enemies) determines whether an insect population becomes a pest or not.Insects can damage plants by eating leaves, by sucking plant juices, by feeding inside leaves,stems, roots, or fruits. However, not all insect feeding reduces yield! Eggplants can compensatefor feeding injury because more leaves and roots are produced than actually needed for shootand fruit formation. So, not all “pests” are “pests”! Actually, some insects are needed to keep thenatural enemy population alive. By setting up insect zoos, the functions and life cycles of insectsand natural enemies can be studied.Natural enemies (predators, parasitoids, pathogens and nematodes) reduce pest insectpopulations. They can be indigenous or reared and released into the field. The latter is becomingmore and more important for many vegetable insect pests. A number of management andcontrol practices for insect pests are described.47Eggplant Ecological Guide