Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay Fortunately farmers themselves are leading the charge. Until recently farmers were being urged to put on pesticides as a precautionary measure to be sure that infestation could not occur, but this often led to pests becoming more and more resistant and farmers having to use ever more chemicals to control them. Now farmers are instead embracing Integrated Pest Management and this is endorsed and encouraged by industry advisory bodies such as the Grain Research and Development Corporation. What is Integrated Pest Management? Briefly this involves the farmer first trying to exclude pests from the crop by physical means. If that fails, they watch and take no action unless pests start to exceed a particular threshold for that crop. This is because if the crop is otherwise healthy, it is possible that beneficial insects and helpful predators could naturally overcome the invaders. If unsuccessful, they will try to remove the pest manua...
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