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.
Soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is among the most damaging pests affecting soybean crops around the world, with current management strategies relying primarily on a very narrow set of resistant soybean varieties, along with crop ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 5, 2026
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19
Genes that play a key role in the formation of an infectious organ used by parasitic plants have been identified by plant scientists at RIKEN. This discovery fills a gap in our understanding of how parasitic plants infect ...
Ecology
Mar 5, 2026
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12
When Vasilis Rodovitis rips open his brown paper bag in a sunny persimmon orchard just outside Naousa, in Greece, I half expect groceries to spill out. Instead, a barely there gray cloud emerges. For half a week, the bag ...
Ecology
Mar 5, 2026
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21
Populations of suburban deer have been on the rise across the U.S. for the last 50 years. Suburban landscapes are like buffet tables with their plentiful lawns, shrubs, and gardens that tempt the animals into human territory. ...
Ecology
Mar 5, 2026
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12
A new study suggests that decades of reported gains in crop yields from plant breeding may be significantly overstated, challenging a common method used worldwide to measure genetic progress. The international research team ...
Ecology
Mar 4, 2026
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16
Whether it's a sudden dash across the garage or silhouette in a backyard web, spiders evoke fear in many people. But researchers don't have a clear picture of why, exactly, this phobia is so common. An interdisciplinary team ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 2, 2026
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20
A provocative new international study published in Austral Ecology warns the massive "broadcast baiting" campaign currently used to combat Red Imported Fire Ants (RIFA) in south-east Queensland may be doing more harm than ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 2, 2026
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370
Even though farmers have been dealing with rice stink bugs as pests since the 1880s, entomologists are still getting to know them at the genetic level. A first-of-its-kind study published on the genetics of rice stink bugs ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Feb 28, 2026
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59
In a world-first discovery, researchers have found an electrical shark deterrent used at Cocos (Keeling) Islands was effective at reducing the number of fish taken off fishing hooks by sharks—a process known as depredation. ...
Biotechnology
Feb 26, 2026
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15
The Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) is one of the most dreaded insects to have invaded North America and parts of Europe. Accidentally introduced to the United States in the early twentieth century, it can now be found ...
Ecology
Feb 25, 2026
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14
