Biological Control of Environmental Pollution

Description

Biological control, the use of living organisms to control pests. A natural enemy such as a parasite, predator, or disease organism is introduced into the environment of a pest or, if already present, is encouraged to multiply and become more effective in reducing the number of pest organisms. Examples of biological control include the destruction of the citrophilus mealybug in California by two parasitic species of chalcid wasps imported from Australia, Coccophagus gurney and Tetracnemus pretiosus; the effective predation of an Australian ladybird beetle, or vedalia beetle(Rodolia cardinalis), on the cottony cushion scale in California; the limiting of the proliferation of the European rabbit in Australia by introduction of myxoma virus (which causes the disease myxomatosis); the control of Japanese beetles by Bacillus popilliae, which causes milky disease. More expensive, there has been a growing interest in ways to incorporate prevention in the design of industrial processes - with the objective of eliminating harmful environmental effects while promoting the competitiveness of industries. Among the benefits of pollution prevention approaches, clean technologies and toxic use reduction is the potential for eliminating worker exposure to health risks. This book contains a mine of information which can be of great value to researchers, environmentalists, social activists, policy planners, etc.