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271. Derived
from: Legner, E. F. 2011.
Biological Pest Control.
Encyclopedia of Organic, Sustainable and Local Food. ABC-CLIO
Summary References Natural
enemies for use in biological control may be categorized into separate risk
groups. Parasitic and predaceous arthropods fit into the lowest risk
category, but are the most difficult to study and to assess for potential
success. The policy of certain countries, e.g., Australia, of requiring
intensive studies on native organisms before allowing them to be exported is
especially devastating to the deployment of biological control. A recent case
of invading Australian wood borers that attack eucalyptus in America has
already caused the death of over half of the trees in California, while the
importation of effective natural enemies continues to move at a crawl. Yet
progress is being made with increased attention to basic ecological and
behavioral research. The rate of biological control successes may drop
initially as the style of "educated empiricism" (Coppell &
Mertins 1977) becomes more widely adopted, as has apparently already begun (Hall
& Ehler 1979, Hall et al. 1980). Success rates could be expected to
increase as the database enlarges and intercommunication possibilities
expand. Certainly the trend will ever more propel the activity of exotic
natural enemy importation into a solid scientific base |