The Rise of Eco-Friendly Pesticides

The popularity of eco-friendly pesticides is growing among farmers as well as building inspection services in Melbourne and other metropolitan cities across Australia. This has happened mainly due to the rise of public concern about the hazardous risks associated with chemical pesticides as a whole. The U.S Government is currently in the process of re-evaluating the various registrations that were passed pre 1995, while keeping the current expectations of environment protection and public health in mind. The best outcome is that a great deal of chemical pesticides are now no longer available due to not having met the current registration standards, hence forcing the manufacturers to halt their production for good.

Image courtesy: http://af-ecologycentre.org/

Now there is a great deal of enthusiasm and growth regarding bio-pesticide development in Canada and other places, making it the ideal alternative to existing chemical pesticides as well.

Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of using bio-pesticides :-

• They usually happen to be less toxic and damaging to the environment than their conventional chemical counterparts.
• In comparison to the chemical pesticides unfortunately targeting a broader spectrum of plants and animals (birds, insects and mammals), most of the biopesticides out there only affect the target insect and other related organisms.
• The main advantage of biopesticides is that they decompose quickly leaving no trace as such, thus making them rather effective in small quantities as well. This way, they tend to avoid the excessive pollution problems caused by the chemical pesticides that usually have to be sprayed across vast distances in large quantities, leading them to adversely affect entire ecosystems at once.
• It is more difficult for the insects to develop a resistance to these pesticides. In contrast, if not completely resistant, a great deal of insects do tend to become hardier towards the chemical pesticides once they have been sprayed over the same areas a few times over. What suffers the most in the bargain is the soil and water of the land.

Now let’s take a look at a few of the drawbacks :-

• Lack of a wide spectrum would mean that its effect is much slower and it would take quite a while for the final results to show.

• Quite a few biopesticides have not been scientifically verified, leading to a lot of doubts and debates about their actual efficiency.
• They tend to have poor water solubility and are not systemic in nature.
• Biopesticides are not that easily available compared to the normal pesticides, so clearly a lot more needs to be done on the availability factor.

Image courtesy: http://inhabitat.com/

At the end of the day, the new breed of pesticides need to be effective in curbing their designated target pest species and nowadays, a lot of research and applications are being used and implemented from insect viruses, other fungi and sometimes even harmless strains of the same pest as a means to strengthen the local natural enemy of the pest in question. Ultimately the biopesticides need to provide a certain predictable standard of performance, not to mention in an inexpensive way.

The future scenario of biopesticides looks both promising yet uncertain. However one thing is for sure – there definitely needs to be a surge of further development and research regarding further biological pest control methods as well as educating the general public and agriculturists alike about the potential dangers of continuing to use chemical pesticides.

Once more people start to demand more of the pesticide-free farm products, this will automatically lead to a better understanding of the benefits of biopesticides, not to mention encouraging the government to put a cap on chemical pesticides in exchange for more healthier and environment friendly options on the pesticide front.