Wasps as an effective pest control for agriculture

Common wasp species could be valuable at sustainably managing crop pests, finds a new UCL-led experimental study in Brazil. The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B , found that social wasps are effective predators that can manage pests on two high-value crops, maize and sugarcane. As wasps are found all over the globe, they could easily be used on small or large-scale farms to control a range of common pests. "There's a global need for more sustainable methods to control agricultural pests, to reduce over-reliance on pesticides or imported pest controllers. Wasps are very common, but understudied, so here we're providing important evidence of their economic value as pest controllers," said the study's lead author, Dr Robin Southon (UCL Centre for Biodiversity & Environmental Research). The study, conducted in collaboration with researchers at São Paulo State University and Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil, is the first controlled experiment in semi-natural conditions on the subject, as it was done on an outdoor research site. Maize was infested with a common pest, the fall army worm, while sugarcane was infested with sugarcane borer.