ABSTRACT
A biological approach involves using natural enemies (or biological control agents) such as parasitoids (parasitic wasps), predators, and/or pathogens (entomopathogenic nematodes and fungi) to suppress or regulate insect and mite pest populations in greenhouses. It is important to understand that biological control is a regulatory process; natural enemies will not eradicate an insect or mite pest population. The success of natural enemies is based primarily on their ability to maintain insect or mite pest numbers at levels low enough to minimize plant damage and subsequently maintain their own populations. The reason why greenhouse producers are interested in implementing a biological control program is due to issues associated with pesticide resistance, in which the efficacy of a given pesticide that targets a particular insect and/or mite pest population is substantially less than what was obtained previously. However, there is a general perception that biological control costs more than using pesticides, although this is not necessarily the case. When factors such a resistance, disposal, worker safety, and plant safety associated with pesticides are taken into consideration then biological control may actually be less expensive than pesticides.
