A Review of the Biological Control of Coffee Insect Pests in Kenya

Abstract

There is no universal agreement on what is covered by the term "biological control" although it is generally agreed to mean reductions of populations of living organisms by other living organisms. In most definitions, however, the planned and deliberate participation by man in initiating, maintaining or encouraging this process IS stated or, at least, implied. Some authors [59] restrict the definition to the action of parasites predators or pathogens "applied regardless of whether or not man deliberately introduces, manipulates or modifies the biological control agents". Hinton [31], on the other hand, restricted the definition to attempts in which the objective is permanent controls while Sweet man [60] extended the terms to include the use of antibiotics and resistant strains of plants. The use of sterilized males of pest species [37, 47], lethal genetic strains of pest species [16] and of non pest species that drive out pest species by competition [10] have also been considered to be biological control.