Considerations for Insect Learning in Integrated Pest Management

Abstract

The past 100 yr have seen dramatic philosophical shifts in our approach to controlling or managing pest species. The introduction of integrated pest management in the 1970s resulted in the incorporation of biological and behavioral approaches to preserve ecosystems and reduce reliance on synthetic chemical pesticides. Increased understanding of the local ecosystem, including its structure and the biology of its species, can improve efficacy of integrated pest management strategies. Pest management strategies incorporating insect learning paradigms to control insect pests or to use insects to control other pests can mediate risk to nontarget insects, including pollinators. Although our understanding of insect learning is in its early stages, efforts to integrate insect learning into pest management strategies have been promising. Due to considerable differences in cognitive abilities among insect species, a case-by-case assessment is needed for each potential application of insect learning within a pest management strategy.

Antagonist effects of the leek Allium porrum as a companion plant on aphid host plant colonization

“…However, some studies also report the relative failure of some plant volatiles combinations that could be explained by the fact that insects experience of CP VOCs may modify or even nullify their innate preference for specific olfactory cues 20 . Indeed a process of plant odor learning by juveniles may influence adult behavior through imprinting (sensitization or habituation) or associative learning 21 . The Amaryllidaceae family plants also exhibit interesting features that could make them promising CPs candidates 22 , 23 .…”

Microbiota-Mediated Competition BetweenDrosophilaSpecies

“…4d). Obviously, it is assuming avoidance loss is based on Ds female colonization by repellent bacteria rather than habituation to the stimulus (10, 36). Otherwise this repellent could only be used once per fly generation, which may be a problem as Ds lives several months in the field (37).…”

Learned predators enhance biological control via organizational upward and trophic top‐down cascades

“…However, while individual-based learning has been well researched for various parasitoid and predator species in diverse behavioural contexts (for review, see Giunti et al, 2015;Kruidhof et al, 2019;Little et al, 2019;Papaj & Lewis, 1993), evidence of organizational scale cascades, as shaped by the release of learned natural enemies, is lacking. Similarly, top-down trophic cascades of learned natural enemies on host plant damage and fitness remain elusive.…”

“…Learning may alter numerous aspects of foraging behaviour and thus has obvious implications to the use of natural enemies in biological control (for review, see Little et al., 2019; Prokopy & Lewis, 1993). Regarding biological control, we have a relatively good understanding of learning by predators and parasitoids at the individual level such as the types of learning that are at play, the cues that are learned, and life stage and age dependency of learning (for review, see Giunti et al., 2015; Little et al., 2019).…”

“…Learning may alter numerous aspects of foraging behaviour and thus has obvious implications to the use of natural enemies in biological control (for review, see Little et al., 2019; Prokopy & Lewis, 1993). Regarding biological control, we have a relatively good understanding of learning by predators and parasitoids at the individual level such as the types of learning that are at play, the cues that are learned, and life stage and age dependency of learning (for review, see Giunti et al., 2015; Little et al., 2019). However, while individual‐based learning has been well researched for various parasitoid and predator species in diverse behavioural contexts (for review, see Giunti et al., 2015; Kruidhof et al., 2019; Little et al., 2019; Papaj & Lewis, 1993), evidence of organizational scale cascades, as shaped by the release of learned natural enemies, is lacking.…”