Pest control methods comprise targeted strategies and technologies used to suppress, manage, or eradicate populations of organisms considered pests in agricultural, urban, industrial, or stored-product settings. They include chemical control (synthetic or biological pesticides with defined modes of action), biological control (predators, parasitoids, pathogens), cultural practices (crop rotation, sanitation, habitat manipulation), mechanical and physical methods (traps, barriers, temperature treatments), and genetic or biotechnological approaches (sterile insect technique, transgenic crops expressing pesticidal traits). Within integrated pest management frameworks, these methods are combined and optimized based on pest biology, monitoring data, resistance management principles, and environmental and human health risk assessments.
A flesh-eating parasitic fly is invading North and Central America. The consequences could be severe for the cattle industry, but this parasite is not picky—it will infest a wide range of hosts, including humans and their ...
Agriculture
Jun 16, 2025
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47
A natural alternative to pesticides may be hiding in a misunderstood plant compound—but it could come at an environmental cost.
Environment
Jun 13, 2025
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65
A team of wildlife management specialists, environmental toxicologists and geneticists at the Conservation and Biodiversity Research Center, Edith Cowan University, in Australia, has found that some black rats living in Australian ...
Under what conditions would it be right—or is it never acceptable—to eliminate a harmful species from our planet? That's what an international team of researchers, including Professor of Philosophy Dr. Clare Palmer from Texas ...
Ecology
Jun 11, 2025
4
73
Researchers have caught and analyzed more than 90,000 mosquitoes in Fiji and Indonesia to find more effective ways to protect some of the world's most vulnerable populations from harmful diseases such as dengue, Zika and ...
Environment
Jun 2, 2025
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18
Pesticides can be made more effective and environmentally friendly by improving how they stick to plant surfaces, thanks to new research led by Dr. Mustafa Akbulut, professor of chemical engineering at Texas A&M University.
Bio & Medicine
Nov 27, 2024
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146
A research team led by Prof. Wu Zhengyan and Zhang Jia from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a new environmentally friendly way to deliver pesticides using porous microspheres ...
Bio & Medicine
Jun 19, 2024
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167
Advanced technologies enable the controlled release of medicine to specific cells in the body. Scientists argue these same technologies must be applied to agriculture if growers are to meet increasing global food demands.
Bio & Medicine
Jun 6, 2024
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202
A new form of agricultural pest control could one day take root—one that treats crop infestations deep under the ground in a targeted manner with less pesticide.
Bio & Medicine
Sep 21, 2023
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213
Controlling mosquito populations, especially in isolated or remote areas, is a global public-health priority. In a new study, a team of Chinese researchers advanced this agenda with a more efficient design of safe, self-powered ...
Nanomaterials
May 31, 2023
0
119
