FORUM ‘Integrated biological control’: A proposal for enhancing success in biological control

It is widely recognized that the proportion of classical biological control initiatives which contribute towards the management of the target arthropod pests is lower than desired and is typically less than 10%. We argue that an important factor contributing to this relatively poor success rate is thattoo little attention is given to the requirements of the agent. Conservation biological control uses habitat manipulation techniques to enhance the impact of endemic, native-natural enemies but we show that it can also increase the impact of exotic agents. This suggests that classical biological control may more often reach its full potential when coupled with habitat manipulation techniques which ensure the agents' requirements for nectar, pollen, moderated microclimate or alternative hosts are met. Greater attention to the requirements of agents may also maximize the longevity and impact of natural enemies released in inundative (in contrast to inoculative) biological control. This concept constitutes a breaking-down of prevailing methodological boundaries. We propose the term 'integrated biological control' for this approach which, we suggest, will become increasingly important in 21st century pest management.