Eco-friendly pest management is not new. Indeed it happens to be quite old. Early on man struggled with pests even prior to agriculture.  After farming really started the battle turned into a war. Hundreds and thousands of years in the past, there were no insecticides to fall back on. And the early farmers were significantly motivated. Any failing of a single plant might possibly bring the real danger of starving.

Those ancient farmers had to be really observant and fast to copy what they saw.  That doesn’t mean that they always got it right, nonetheless they tried. A number of eco-friendly pest control tactics happen to be described within the writings of ancient China, Greece, as well as Rome. While some of these tactics were grounded in religion and also superstition, a few had enduring scientific worth. Those are the ones many of us continue to take advantage of these days.

Prior to the phrase Integrated Pest Management was ever considered, the ancients were finding Integrated Pest Management techniques such as:

  • Biological Control – making use of helpful organisms to help you manage bugs
  • Cultural Controls– utilizing crop rotation and sanitation to eliminate insects
  • Physical Controls – making use of baits and traps, and burning crops soon after harvesting
  • Genetic Controls – making use of bug resistant crops

A large number of cultures burned off the remains of a crop right after harvest in order to destroy insects, larva and eggs in addition to weed seeds. This system is mentioned  found by the ancient Chinese nearly 3000 years in the past and by the Roman Virgil, 1000 years afterward. Even today some farmers still burn their crop residue though climate change concerns may possibly alter that.

Getting rid of crop residue was only one of several tactics to disrupt the life cycle of insects. Crop rotation was one more procedure first used in ancient China to stop bug populations from swiftly reproducing. In the 6th century BC, the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagorus was given credit for wiping out malaria from a community as a result of asking residents to drain a nearby swamps.

The Chinese especially became adept at using beneficial species to deal with bugs. As an example 3200 years ago ancient Chinese writings indicate the application of predatory ants to safeguard citrus groves from caterpillars and wood boring beetles. Afterwards authorities prohibited the elimination of eggs and the hunting of both frogs & birds because these kinds of species consume large numbers of pests. Praying mantises were introduced in gardens among the chrysanthemums in order to eat leaf-eating pests.

The earliest mechanical bug traps were not designed until the early 1700’s. A German doctor named Franz Bruckmann created fly traps made from a wooden container. They integrated a spring loaded lid and were baited using a sweet attractant. Bruckmann also developed flea traps placed around the neck. They grew to become very popular with the aristocracy of Western Europe at that time.

Environmentally friendly pest control strategies are not new. They have been refined and proved over thousands of years. Generally these were affordable, easy and risk-free. After ages of utilizing chemical pesticides, the tide began returning back to more organic techniques. These kinds of strategies are jointly called Integrated Pest Management, and they’re the future of pest control.