Fungi Uses in Pest Management

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	[[Image:Lecanicillium2.jpg|thumb|right|300px|''Lecanicillium lecanii'' on hemlock woolly adelgid cadaver<ref>Svetlana Y. Gouli, University of Vermont, Bugwood.org</ref>]]		[[Image:Lecanicillium2.jpg|thumb|right|300px|''Lecanicillium lecanii'' on hemlock woolly adelgid cadaver<ref>Svetlana Y. Gouli, University of Vermont, Bugwood.org</ref>]]
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		+	[[Image:Beauveria bassiana.jpg|thumb|right|300px|''Beauveria bassiana'' on pecan weevil (''Curculio caryae'')<ref>Louis Tedders, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Bugwood.org</ref>]]
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Fungi are useful biological controls for pests in crops and urban environments and are commercially used since 1981 ^[3]. They can be used as herbicide, insecticide and fungicide. Mycopesticides are interesting organic alternatives to chemical pesticides due to their high specificity and safety for the non-targeted species such as humans, pets and desired insects ^[4]. They share their advantages and disadvantages with other biopesticides^[4]. Lecanicillium lecanii, Beauveria bassiana and Trichoderma spp. are amongst the most commonly used species and have been widely studied in spite of the short history of this field of study. With the growing enthusiasm for organic farming and justified environmental concerns in the population, mycopesticide have a definitely a bright future ^[5].

Contents 1 History 2 Types of Mycopesticides 2.1 Mycoherbicide 2.2 Mycoinsecticide 2.3 Mycofungicide 2.4 Mycopesticides in Urban Environments 3 Advantages and Disadvantages 4 Novel Uses of Mycopesticides 4.1 Culicoides nubeculosus Biting Midge and the Bluetongue virus 4.2 Adult House Fly management in poultry farms using Beauveria bassiana 4.3 Controlling Tick Populations in Cattle 5 Species 6 Definitions 7 Notes and References

History

For over 100 years, scientists have been studying many different species of fungi with entomopathogenic characteristics but the use of these organisms in the field has been relatively elusive. Many of these fungal organisms are not only entomopathogens, but also aid in general plant growth. Since the late 1940's, chemical insecticides has been the main tool that growers have utilized, in order to control potentially damaging pests and diseases. Some of the earliest recorded studies of entomopathogenic fungi, came in the early 1800 when the silkworm industry in France was devastated by Botrytis bassiana. This finding is what lead to further research and use of fungal insect pathogens to manage a wide range of pests.^[6] Most recently, DNA sequence analysis has lead to a much better understanding between the differences in entomopathogenic fungi and other types of fungi. This new research has revealed that some of these entomopathogenic fungi, also play the role of beneficial rhizosphere associates, plant growth promoters, as well as plant endophytes. These findings have now lead to further research to determine if some of these entomopathogenic fungi can be used for more than just one purpose.

The use of Entomopathogenic fungi in pest management covers a wide variety of Eumycota subdivisions. These subdivisions of Eumycota include; Mastigomycotina, Zygomycotina, Ascomycotina, and Deuteromycotina ^[3]. In 1981, the first mycoinsectiside registered in the U.S. was Hirsutella thompsonii and was given the registered name; Mycar. This species has been noted to cause epizootics as early as 1920 in some species of spider mites ^[3]

With the rising cost of synthetic chemical pesticides and increasing cases of pesticide resistance, the search for natural biologically based forms of pest management has been a key area of research for the last decade. With the world population rising over 7 billion and the drastic effects of climate change, the need for alternative forms of pest control will become essential. Although insects are key in the performance of many ecosystems, they play a large role in the 35 billion dollars worth of crop that is lost in the United States each year ^[7]

There is enormous potential for pest and vector control in pest management in the future due to an increasing amount of knowledge in the area of mycology. ^[8]

Types of Mycopesticides

Mycoherbicide

See main article: Fungi used as a Herbicide

Fungi can be used as a herbicide to exterminate specific weeds and other plants that are detrimental to the effective growth of crops. In order to use a fungus for this purpose, a mycoherbicide is created with the fungi as its active ingredient. The use of mycoherbicides focus on the theory of the disease triangle. The disease triangle breaks down the conditions that need to be apparent for infection to occur, those are environment, pathogen and host. The following will fall under one or more of these categories. Mycoherbicides act by releasing phytopathogens to suppress weed growth. The phytopathogens release phytotoxins that can kill weeds in up to five weeks time. A common phytotoxin found in the fungi species Penicillium is vulculic acid. The fungi species most commonly used as herbicides in North America are Collectrichum gloeosporioides (Collego®) and Phytophthora palmivoraa (De Vine®).A specific weed strain commonly known as arrowhead (Sagitaria trifolia) is the cause of the largest rice plantation problem in Iran. Arrowhead is notably resistant to chemical herbicides. Collego® is used in the USA as the solution to arrowhead. Other types of fungi that can be used as mycoherbicides are rusts and mildews. These fungi use spore distribution to cause infection in their host plants.

Mycoinsecticide

See main article: Fungi used as a Insecticide

Certain species of fungi can act as parasites of insect. When a fungus is used as insecticides, it is called mycoinsecticide. ^[9]. In recent years, crop protection has been trending towards integrated pest management (IPM) using bacteria and fungi as insecticides. Approximately 750 species of fungi are pathogenic to insects and only 12 are being utilized as insecticides ^[9]. Two prominent species of fungi used as insecticides are Beauveria bassiana, and Metarhizium anisopliae. Mycoinsecticides function by first being applied to the insects in spray form. The fungi then use their hyphae to burrow into the insects. The hyphae spread the insectotoxins throughout the insect to activate them, eventually leading to the the insect’s death.

Mycofungicide

See main article: Fungi used as a Fungicide

Mycopesticides in Urban Environments

See main article: Fungi uses in Urban Environments

Entomopathogens are key components for integrated pest management solutions ^[10]. There is a large market for urban pest control that has been dominated by the use of pesticides and insecticides ^[10]. These chemical pesticides pose a danger not only to the person applying them, but other people, or pets, which may come into contact with the chemicals in an urban environment ^[10]. Previously used in agricultural settings as deterrents, fungi such as Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisopliae and Paecilomyces fumosoroseus may have possible pest control applications in urban settings as well ^[11].

Advantages and Disadvantages

epizootics as early as 1920 in some species of spider mites ^[3]

Novel Uses of Mycopesticides

Throughout history, there have been many instances of harmful pesticides being released into the environment without fully understanding the implications of such actions. One example of this was the use of DDT, a chemical that has an extremely long half-life and a high degree of bioaccumulation directly linked to a high lipophilicity, which causes eggshell thinning in several birds, including birds of prey (Tucker and Haegele, 1970). With global environmental awareness increasing, there has been a greater demand for less harmful pesticides. An alternative of pesticides, biopesticides, generally have a lower toxicity, increased safety, as well as a high efficacy in pest control (Market Publishers, 2012).

Consequently, the demand and commercial application of microbial biopesticide has increased proportionally to 0.98% of the total worldwide pesticide market, growing at a rate of just over 13% per annum, representing an increase of 47% between 2004/2005 and 2007/2008. Fungal biopesticides represent a large proportion of the rapidly growing sector of pest management.

Several commercial applications of mycopestocides have been investigated, as described below.

Culicoides nubeculosus Biting Midge and the Bluetongue virus

Adult House Fly management in poultry farms using Beauveria bassiana

Controlling Tick Populations in Cattle

Species

Effective pest management relies on the appropriate matching of a target species with the pathogenic fungal species^[12]. Many species and target combinations have been included and are summarized in the article below.

See main article: Species

Definitions

See main article: Definitions

Notes and References

1. ↑ Svetlana Y. Gouli, University of Vermont, Bugwood.org
2. ↑ Louis Tedders, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Bugwood.org
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} Rechcigl E.J., Rechcigl N.A.(2000)Biological and Biotechnological Controls of INSECT PESTS Pg 49-51.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Moore D., Robson G.D., Trinci A.P.J. (2011). 21st CENTURY GUIDE TO FUNGI. Cambridge University Press:New York.
5. ↑ CPL Business Consultants. (2010). The 2010 Worldwide Biopesticides Market Summary. Toronto: CAB International Centre.
6. ↑ VEGA F.E.(2009)Fungal entomopathogens: new insights on their ecology fungal ecology 2 (2009) 149–159 ,
7. ↑ P. A. Shah, J. K. Pell.(2003) Fungi as Biological Control Agents. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Volume 61, Issue 5-6, pp 413-423.
8. ↑ k. Seigfried. (1998) Use of Fungi for Pest Control in Sustainable Agriculture.. Swiss Fédéral Research Station for Agroecology and Agriculture, Reckenholz, CH-8046 Zurich. Phytoprotection, vol. 79, n° 4, 1998, p. 56-60.
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1} Hall. and Franklin R. 1998. Mycoinsecticides on Field Crops - Production, Delivery, and Use of Mycoinsecticides for Control of Insect Pests on Field Crops. Biopesticides: "Use and Delivery" 233-270
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2} Milner, RJ. and Pereira RM. (2007). Microbial control of urban pests - cockroaches, ants and termites. Field Manual of Techniques in Invertebrate Pathology. 20(2):695-711
11. ↑ Lenz, M. (2005). Biological control in termite management: the potential of nematodes and fungal pathogens. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Urban Pests. 47-52
12. ↑ Singh, A., Parmar, N., & Kuhad, R. (2011). Bioaugmentation, biostimulation and biocontrol [electronic resource] / Ajay Singh, Nagina Parmar, Ramesh C. Kuhad, editors. Berlin ; Heidelberg ; New York : Springer, c2011.