Maddyscience

//For this section i chose to do more research on Biological control from my science report, the reason i chose to do this is because I'd like to know more about biological control and to show that i understand what biological control is.

Biological control is a method of controlling pests. Biological control uses pathogens, which are disease causing organisms, predators or parasites to help control these pests. The pests that are biologically controlling can range from weeds, mice, insects and even plant diseases. This system can be important component of the integrated pest management (IMP) programs. The system takes the natural enemies and involves an active human role. Natural enemies of pests are called biological control agents. There are three types of biological control already mentioned, they are pathogens, predators or parasites.

A pathogen ( in Greek means suffering, passion) is a germ or infectious agent that causes disease or illness to its host. It is a biological control agent.Our human immune system contains many natural defenses that help us to heal, stop diseases and fight colds/ flues. This helps defend against some common pathogens. However if the immune system is damaged in anyway ( e.g. chemotherapy, HIV or antibiotics ) some pathogenic bacteria that was being held back will hurt or harm the host, which in this case is a human.Some pathogens have been responsible for massive numbers of casualties including HIV and influenza//, which even today threaten human numbers. However in the case of biological control not all pathogens are bad for our environment.

In biological control predation is where a predator ( an organism that is hunting ) feeds on its prey ( an organism that is being attacked). A predator may or may not kill their prey prior to eating them but the predation always ends in the act of the prey being killed. Often the aim of predation in biological control is to wipe out all the preys number however this often doesn't happen. What happens is that the number are decreased to an appropriate level where the predator is still able to kill the prey or pest. Humans use this biological control method the most often because it is easier and less expensive.

Parasites are normally much smaller than their hosts. Their job is to modify the behavior of the hosts,, which kills the host in the a long time period. A case of this is the Euhaplorchis californiesnsis. This is a topically transmitted parasite ( TTP) at lives in Southern California. It lives in three hosts shorebirds, horn snails and killifish. As with many parasites, this one modifies the behavior of the prey to increase the likelihood of its transmission to the next host, the predator.

Links : Maddieintroduction Maddyenglish Maddymaths MaddySose maddyconclusion MaddyM