| Link
to Farm Robots Robots
and the Environment
Robot
Features About the Author
Invest In Or Donate to Farm Robot project |
| Biological Controls Environmental Links Pesticide Health Issue Links |
Biological Controls |
What
is a biological control?
Usually a predator let loose
into
an environment with the thought that it will eat the pests you are
trying
to get rid of. Several of them have literally back-fired. Doing either
little to protect the crop or just eating everyone else in the
neighbourhood
instead. Here's some links to such stories.
Bio-Controls
gone bad:
'Natural'
pest controls can sometimes backfire (Destructive parasitic wasps)
Mongoose : Sugar
cane
protector or just another bird killer
Mongoose :
Supposed to kill a few snakes. Real victims - more birds.
Importers
of mongoose ignored voice of caution.
Invasive
Species: Amphibians - Cane Toads - They are NOT native to Australia!
Why I
don't support some of the natural controls:
Releasing thousands of small
predators into an environment is no different
then how the cane toad problem of Australia started. Plus, you're
wiping
out
the genetic diversity of the naturally occurring members of the same
species. Genetically engineering crops to make them more resistant to
toxins
does not stop the dumping of toxins into the environment. It just
allows
them to use more herbicides to make sure they kill all the other
plants.
We need to have someone physically go in and pull the weeds and squash
the harmful insects, while leaving the good ones alone. Robots are the
only solution. I may be doing Computer Engineering but my fist love is
biology. I really wanted to be a biologist but I realized long ago
though
that there are not enough engineers who are environmentally sensitive
enough.