The agricultural sector is fast growing and expanding. With the variety of new crops being raised, the types of pests infesting them have also become equally varied. In the most general sense, pests are elements or entities that hamper the steady growth of a crop, thereby in turn reducing its consequent yield. The types of pests can be categorized into three main types – weeding, human intervention and insects. The insect pests are certainly the most dangerous one.

Though the crops that are raised with genetic modifications are being made resistant to too many diseases and insects, yet the problems keep accelerating. The insect pests are very different in different crops. All the more, all the insect pests cannot be cured with just one single spray. While there are squash bugs infesting on the summer squashes, aphids might be destroying some other crop. The pests further get categorized into micro pests and macro pests.

The micro pests are more dangerous and more harmful to the crops. Being smaller in size, they cannot be easily detected, hence, they tend to have high detrimental effects on the farm produce. However, the macro pests owing to their bigger size can be detected sufficiently before they can make use of their large scale damage mechanism. The main macro pests are human activities, rodents and stray animals. Here in, we have collected 4 main ways by which the pests can be kept at a distance.

The 3 most important methods to drive away insect pests

The physical method to ward off insect pests

The pests being biological hindrances, are best eliminated by physical or the natural means. This method includes all varieties of techniques which are not chemical in nature. These pests act well for the macro pests. The best ways to implement this method is by using traps, alarms and hunting. The prime benefit that comes by the usage of this method is that, it has no adverse side effect neither on the crop nor on the consumers.

For the winter crops, with the use of tunnels and nets, various insects can be kept at the bay. All the more, this method is likely to incur less costs and involves extremely minimal labour. This technique over the years have proved to of great help to the farmers.

The chemical methods to prevent the spread of insect pests

This method stands out as the most effective way of curtailing the expanse of insect pest invasion. These involve materials which contain toxic chemicals and can easily wipe out the population of the insect pests. Owing to these harmful natures, at first, they are duly diluted with water. Then, the diluted mixture is sprayed on the leaves of the plants or on the infected parts of the plants. The chemical sprays work well when sprayed before the harvest time.

This chemical method has been technically made to work more effectively on the micro pests like the thrips, army worm and aphids. The chemicals which are used in the farms are termed as insecticides or the pesticides. Though they are very effective yet one strong negative aspect of it, is that, some parts of the chemicals at times remain in the plants. Thereby, affecting the health of the consumers. Moreover, when these harmful chemicals get washed off by the rain or when leaching occurs, then even the soil and the nearby water bodies get ecologically imbalanced. The cost involved in this method is sufficiently high and it is highly labour intensive as well.

Biological methods to reduce the expanse of the insect pests

By the very name, we can easily understand that biological methods are the natural methods. They use the natural substances to ward off the insect pests. Likewise, chickens are used to lessen the growing population of insects like nematodes and grasshoppers. At times, this method arranged for a combination of varied other methods. This combination is termed as integrated pest management. This method being technical, requires high knowledge and subsequent expertise.

Conclusion

Over the years, the farmers are trying to bring out innovative ways to prevent the spread of dangerous pests. The main caution regarding the usage of pest control is the latent fear of side effect that might bring a toll on the crop production. Thereby, bringing upon a subsequent ill effect on the respective consumers as well.

Hence, the methods to ward off both the micro pests and the macro pests are being restricted to the biological ones only. So, that they can be easily assimilated in the soil without bringing about any adverse effect. Hopefully, with these given means to oust the insect pests, the farmers will be more aware of protecting their crops from the lurking nuisances.