Applied Insect Ecology and Biological Control

Learning outcome

Students will acquire a knowledge of crop pest insects, their natural enemies, and biological interactions (including with the crop itself) supporting environmentally friendly, sustainable pest control.
 

After the course the student should be able to:
 

Knowledge:
- Describe the principles and methods of monitoring insect pests of crops
- Describe the main methods to prevent and control insect attacks

- Describe and understand the strategies used in insect pest management and biological control
- Know and characterize the main types of organisms currently used for or of future potential for biological control
- Describe methods used for diagnostics, isolation, characterization, bio-assays and field experiments of relevance for functional biodiversity and biological control

Skills:
- Analyse and process monitoring results and work out and communicate a decision background for growers.
- Ability to select an organism for biological control in a specified system
-Ability to select relevant methods to study the interactions between natural enemies, target prey/host and environment
-Ability to analyse and decide about potential risks using biological control or other management method both in a specified system and in a more general context
- Ability to use scientific literature to discuss own data

Competences:
- Explain the major concepts of insect pest management.
- Explain and discuss crop and production system effects on pest insects, natural enemies and other insects.
-  Discuss ethical aspects of insect management

-Ability to transfer the knowledge into other decision processes about multitrophic interactions of ecological relevance
- Ability to perform and analyse experimental work including two or three organisms

-Discuss innovative solutions to integrated pest management
- Ability to transfer the knowledge into other decision processes involving cross disciplinary elements, for example: biology, crop systems’ management, and ethics