Pollinating insects and productivity. Part Two

On the same fields, it is now left for no more than one year, as a result, the life cycle of pests does not have time to end. The pupae of the cotton scoop die during dry tillage. The optimal time of sowing and steaming has been established. Useful insects were imported from neighboring valleys, where spraying, fortunately, was not carried out, and thus this essential genetic resource was preserved. Pesticides are now used only by special permission and in minimal quantities. As a result, insects that turned into pests because pesticides destroyed their natural enemies were returned to their original harmless state, and the number of traditional pests was reduced to a tolerable level. A year after these measures were taken, the cotton harvest grew to 526 kg per 1 ha and since then has fluctuated between 724 and 1036 kg per 1 ha, which is higher than ever before.


Some researchers are trying to get an even greater effect from the use of biological enemies of agricultural pests. For example, scientists from the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines found that the joint cultivation of peanuts and corn reduces the infection of corn with the larvae of its chief physician, the corn moth, by six times compared to corn grown without peanuts. The fact is that the main enemies of the corn moth are two types of tarantula, and where peanuts grow, there are much more of them than where there is none. The effectiveness of tarantulas was compared with the effectiveness of various insecticides. Tarantulas coped with their task somewhat better than a selective biological insecticide, and the effect from them was three times higher than from regular use of an insecticide with a wide spectrum of action. It was possible to increase the effectiveness of tarantulas only by applying an insecticide at a strictly defined phase of plant development. Chemicals are the main weapon in the fight against plant enemies, but chemicals alone without parasites and predatory insects are not enough. Farmers and gardeners are forced to use chemicals when pest populations become prohibitively numerous. But even in this case, it is necessary to maintain in optimal proportions the number of populations of parasites and natural enemies of agricultural pests — these "friends" of the farmer. Uncultivated land provides food, shelter and a breeding ground not only for pests and their enemies, but also for pollinators. In addition to wild bees, other insects are also important to some extent as pollinators. Bumblebees, for example, are the main pollinators of blueberries, cranberries, clover, horse beans and beans. Some species of solitary bees play an essential role in pollination of alfalfa. Pumpkin bees and agaonids, or blastophages, are indispensable pollinators of pumpkin and figs. pointloto