Abstract

Under forestry conditions, management techniques aimed at maintenance of pest populations at moderate levels have greater chance of success than conventional methods of pest control. Simple behavioural observations can sometimes be used to great advantage in the development of such methods, some examples of which are given. Although there has been considerable excitement over the past two decades on the possibility of using behaviour modifying chemicals for control of pests through mass trapping or disruption of the insect's normal communication systems, no significant practical achievement has so far been reported. Difficulties in the use of these chemicals include inadequate information on the biological responses of natural populations of insectsutilization by most insects of a complex pheromone system involving several chemical componentsnon-reproducibility of laboratory results under natural conditions due to several modifying factorshigh cost of the development and