Pest Management in the Eco-Machine

1. Pest Management in the Eco-Machine • Here are a few of the beneficial insects used in the Eco-Machine. • Ladybugs • Aphidoletes (Midge) • Lacewings • Wasps • Balancing the ecosystem that is the Eco-Machine is a delicate process. • In any ecosystem, pests will naturally develop. The Eco-Machine uses a system called Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to manage the ratio of pest to beneficial organisms. • While the use of single methods of pest control, such as pesticides are popular, they often lead to the pests adapting and the method becoming ineffective. • IPM uses a variety of methods for pest control, so that the organisms in question do not have the opportunity to adapt. • The use of beneficial insects is one of the key methods of IPM used in the Eco-Machine. • You may already be familiar with the idea of beneficial insects. For example, Bees act as pollinators to many species of plants, allowing them propagate. Similarly, other insects provide beneficial services, especially by killing certain kinds of pests. With this in mind, the Eco-Machine uses several species of insects to control pest populations.