Economic valuation of natural pest control of the summer grain aphid in wheat in South East England

Abstract

Wheat (Triticum spp.) is the most important arable crop grown in the UK, and the grain aphid (Sitobion avenae) is one of the key pests of this crop. Natural enemies could help suppress grain aphid and reduce unnecessary insecticide inputs, but few studies have estimated the economic value of natural pest control in this crop-pest system, which could help inform effective integrated pest management strategies. Based on a natural enemy exclusion experiment carried out in South East England, this study used an economic surplus model to estimate the value of predators and parasitoids to control summer grain aphid in wheat in this region. Incorporating three levels of spray intensity and three levels of pest infestation, the annual economic value of natural pest control service was conservatively estimated to be £0-2.3 Million. Under the medium pest infestation level, a 10% increase in the proportion of wheat fields using economic threshold-based spray method would increase this value by 23% (£0.4 Million). 71% of the value would benefit wheat growers. A potential rise in insecticide costs due to resistance development would also enhance the value of natural pest control. These findings support growing efforts from policy-makers to promote this ecosystem service in agriculture.

Unveiling the Efficiency of Vermicompost Derived from Different Biowastes on Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Plant Growth and Soil Health

“…The current reason for low wheat yields in Pakistan is the attack of Russian wheat aphids (black aphids). The infestation of the Russian wheat aphid is more severe at reproductive and grain filling stages, resulting in decline of wheat yield up to 21-92% in aphid susceptible cultivars [16]. Considering the above-mentioned facts, there is dire need for integrated use of chemical and organic fertilizers, especially the use of sustainable bio-fertilizers as an alternative approach for producing and maintaining yield at an acceptable level without compromising environment.…”

Early Detection of Aphid Infestation and Insect-Plant Interaction Assessment in Wheat Using a Low-Cost Electronic Nose (E-Nose), Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and Machine Learning Modeling

“…Even though there was unbalanced data for the treatments as classifiers, the models were able to recognize non-infected plants with 96.5% and 98.3%, respectively. All further models can be used either to monitor insect activity or to verify the effectiveness of control methods using either chemical pesticides [ 63 ], organic pesticides [ 64 , 65 ], and natural predators through integrated pest management (IPM) [ 66 , 67 ].…”

Plant-host shift, spatial persistence, and the viability of an invasive insect population

“…Considered in an applied scenario, the movement of pests between different patches can result in damaging economic losses. In pest control programs the aim is to present actions that maintain the density of pests in an equilibrium level below damaging economic thresholds (Zhang et al, 2018;Wieser et al, 2019;Bryant et al, 2020), so the analysis of parameter values that lead to the loss of stability, resulting in unpredictable population outbreaks, has an unquestionable utility for integrated pest management strategies (Costa & Faria, 2010). The ecological interactions between different species of drosophilids and their varied food sources have been systematically studied in the past (Buruga & Olembo 1971), due to the importance of these species in attacking ripening fruit.…”