Historical Development of Pest Management

1. Historical Development of Pest Management Source: Norris, R. F., Caswell-Chen, E. P., & Kogan, M. (2003). Concepts in integrated pest management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

2. Dawn of agriculture approximately 10,000 BC • Severe food shortages and famines have always been a threat to humans • Greatest crop losses due to: • Inclement weather • Disease • Insects and other arthropods • Vertebrate pests

3. Ancient Times (10,000 BC to 0) • Major crop species domesticated • Wheat, barley, oats, rice, maize, soybean, beans, potato, cotton, yam, coconut, grapes, sorghum • Majority of work done with manual labor • plowing introduced in 4,000 BCE • Grains stored • Destruction by rodents, insects was common problem • Lack of food was constraint to population growth • Weeds were among the most easily controlled crop pest • With large labor force, as is still the case today in developing nations

4. Important Dates 10,000 BCE to 0 • Silkworm domesticated • Insect life cycles begin to be understood • Sulfur discovered as an insecticide • Botanical insecticides were discovered and put into use • Pyrethrins, nicotine • Cultural controls were considered in pest management • E.g., growing susceptible crops on slopes rather than valleys

5. CE 1 to Middle Ages • Little was recorded • Lack of understanding of pest biology • Roman gods of rust and weeds • Clavicepspurpurea • Ergot • Rye, wheat are susceptible • Under moist conditions

6. Important DatesCE 1 to Middle Ages • Silkworm droppings used for control of rice pests • Connection between crop phenology and insect attack was made • Ants as biological controls • Insecticidal soaps in China

7. Seventeenth Century • Microscopes and the scientific method • Insect life cycle better understood • Insects arose from eggs

8. Important Dates17th Century • Better of understanding of how plants grow, although not complete • Invention of the compound microscope • Made the connection between host plants and susceptible crops • Removed barberry bushes from wheat growing areas to remove host of rust fungus • Discovered bacteria • Greater understand of insect life cycles • Arsenic as an insecticide

9. Eighteenth Century • Carl Linnaeus developed binomial nomenclature • Two big discoveries • Heat related to insect growth, development and reproduction • Plants have natural defenses against insects • Seed drill allowed for uniform crops to be planted • Aided in weed control • Jethro Tull • Nematodes discovered, not understood

10. Important Dates18th Century • Jethro Tull accelerated adoption of animal power in crop husbandry • Mainly for weeding • Reduced the need for human labor, freed people up to do other things • Awareness that fungi tend to spread through spores (“dust”) from infected crops to non-infected crops

11. Nineteenth Century • Society began to assume that they could control the environment • Agricultural research programs, land grant universities • First recognition of a microorganism causing disease (late blight in potato) • Discovery of bacterial pathogens • Living organisms arise from other living organisms • Koch’s postulates • Procedure for demonstrating that diseases can be passed from one organism to another • Only works with pathogens that can be cultured • Introduction of the “silver bullet” approach to pest management • First pesticide application equipment developed in France • Introduction of new pests to new places increases with world travel

12. Important Dates19th Century • First record of plant pest resistance • Increasing acceptance of the idea that plant diseases are not self-generating • USDA is established • Copper sulfate and lime used as a fungicide • Bordeaux mixture • First demonstration that bacteria causes disease • Fire blight of pear • First observation that monoculture increases the incidence of disease (in coffee) • Observation that pathogens are vectored by insects • Viruses first described

13. Early Twentieth Century • Five major pest control methods in use • Legislative, cultural, biological, genetic and chemical • More knowledge about crop pest life cycles • Increased crop yields worldwide due to plant breeding, better pest control, and increased use of fertilizers • Introduction of fossil fuel use • Dominated by the belief that pesticides were the cure for every pest problem • A new chemical can be developed to solve every problem

14. Important DatesEarly 20th Century • Increased mechanization • Use of harmful , albeit effective, chemicals for pest control • Discovery that disease resistance can be inherited • The term biological control could be used • First incidence of insect resistance to a insecticide • First aerial application of a pesticide • The use of organic insecticides increased • Most were not selective • Mueller given the nobel prize for DDT • Seven years later, first DDT resistant houseflies found

15. Late Twentieth Century • Realizing that pesticides have limitations • Undesirable side effects • Resistance to pesticides becoming widespread • Beginning to take a more balanced ecological view • IPM • Integration of several different pest management tactics

16. Important DatesLate 20thCentury • Gain an understanding of DNA and genetics, paving the way for genetic manipulation of organisms • Identified the first insect sex hormone, influencing insect pest control • Silent Spring brings attention to hazards of pesticide use to society at large • Resistance to herbicides first documented • Creation of EPA in 1972 • GMO’s gain widespread use, but concerns grow over the safety and efficacy of such technologies

17. Important Dates • Look at the important dates on your handout • Which of these do you think we the most significant? • Why? • Questions for Wednesday • Looking to the future, what do you see? • How will we handle pests in the future?