The farmer invests in machinery, hires labor, buys inputs, and works hard to guarantee a good harvest. But he needs to prepare himself to face “small enemies” who enter the farms without opening the gates and can erode the entire crop: agricultural pests.

Therefore, the best thing to do is to look for innovative ways to prevent pests, reduce the population of these organisms in crops and adopt sustainable control practices. In this article, you will check the main recommendations to deal with agricultural pests appropriately and, thus, increase the chances of success in your production!

What Are Agricultural Pests?

First, it is essential to understand what precisely an agricultural pest is. Guardian pest control can say that they are organisms that cause damage to your crops, such as diseases (caused by fungi, bacteria, and viruses), insects, and weeds.

How Do They Arise?

Have you ever wondered why they develop? Understanding this process is the principle for understanding prevention and control mechanisms. You may have noticed that, in a natural environment, plants coexist with other beings peacefully because there is an ecological balance. We can say that all insects and microorganisms have their predators, ensuring that no species will increase disorderly.

Leaf Of A Pest-Eaten Plant.

Agricultural pests cause a lot of damage to crops. Whole leaves can be consumed in a short time. Farming, however, is not a natural environment. Often, plants are out of their original habitat, in very different soil and climate conditions than their biological makeup are prepared for. In some situations, the luminosity, the humidity of the air, the level of irrigation, and the nutritional status of the soil are not appropriate for that crop.

Other adverse issues can make the plant’s life even worse:

  • Scarce or excessive rainfall.
  • Temperature spikes.
  • So many other aspects that are out of the farmer’s control.

In this way according to https://www.guardianhome.com/pest-contro/, the plant is weakened and vulnerable to pest attacks.

Another critical factor is the aspect related to ecological balance. In monoculture, for example, the cultivation of a single species becomes a full plate for insects that feed on it. Without the presence of a natural predator, pests proliferate in a sovereign way.