Cultural control involves manipulating farming practices to reduce pest populations without using pesticides. Some key cultural control strategies discussed in the document include plowing, raking, pruning, intercropping with trap crops, mixed cropping, clipping plant tops, mulching, timely harvesting, synchronized sowing, crop rotation, and crop sanitation. Mechanical control methods like cultivation, hand-picking, shaking plants, and spraying water can also be used for direct removal or killing of pests, though they work best for small infestations. Cultural control of pathogens focuses on reducing initial inoculum levels through practices like selecting uninfected planting materials and removing diseased plants or crop residues.

1. Destruction of Insect Pests by
Cultural and Mechanical Control
Charisse Dizon
Cherry Anne Ersando
Maria Marcelina Espineli
Group 3

2. Cultural Control
-manipulation of cultural practices for
reducing or avoiding pest damage to crops.
-control of insect pests through adoption of
ordinary farm practices in appropriate time
in such a way that insects are either
eliminated or reduced in population.

3. Merits and Demerits of Cultural
Control
Advantages Disadvantages
No costly inputs Timing decides success
No special equipments No complete control
Minimum cost of labor, if
required
Requires long term planning
No health hazards –
ecologically sound
No harmful effects on non-
target organisms
Good component in IPM

4. Cultural Control of Insect Pests

5.  Reduce and/or disrupt pest habitat in and
around crop
 Adjust crop planting to disrupt pest habitat
and nutrition requirements
 Divert pest population away from crop
 Reduce yield loss from insect injury
Cultural Control Strategies

6. Cultural Practices in Pest Management
Cropping Techniques Pests Checked
Ploughing Red hairy caterpillar, white
grubs, cutworms
Raking and hoeing Fruit flies, pumpkin beetles
Pruning Rice mealybug
Intercropping: Cowpea in
sorghum stem borer
Sorghum stem borer
A. Farm Level Practices

7. Trap Cropping: mustard in
cabbage
DBM in cabbage
Mixed cropping: sunflower,
maize, onion, coriander,
cowpea & marigold in cotton
Sucking pests and bollworms
Clipping off top in seedlings Rice stem borer
Mulching Early shoot borer of sugar
Timely harvesting Sweet potato weevil, pulse
beetle

8. B. Community Level Practices
Synchronized sowing Dilution of pest
infestation
Crop rotation Breaks insect life cycle
Crop sanitation Destruction of insect
infested parts; Removal
of fallen plant parts
and crop residue
destruction

9.  Direct removal or killing of pests.
 Can be rapid and effective, but many are
mostly suited for small acute pest problems.
 Popular with gardeners and home owners.
Mechanical Control

10.  Cultivation
 Hand-picking
 Shaking plants
 Spray of water
Practices:

11. Cultural Control of Pathogens

12. Cultural disease management practices
are the measures undertaken by humans to
prevent and control diseases by manipulating
plants. It include reducing the amount of
initial inoculum, reducing the rate of spread of
an established disease, or planting a crop at a
site that is not favourable to pathogens.
Cultural Management Practices

13. Practices that reduce the initial level of
inoculum include:
 selecting appropriate planting materials;
 destruction of crop residues;
 elimination of living plants that carry
pathogens; and
 crop rotation.
Reducing the Level of Inoculum

14. The rate of disease can be reduced
by controlling the spacing of plants,
humidity, moisture levels and amount of
sunlight.
Reducing the Rate of Spread of
Disease

15. It can also be reduced through:
 Tillage;
 Sowing practices;
 Intercropping;
 Mulching and soil amendments;
cont...

16.  http://eap.mcgill.ca/publications/eap58.htm
 Hand-out lecture in CRPT 2
 http://www.entomology.wisc.edu/mbcn/fea102.html
References