Sugonyaev, E. S., Balakhnina, I. V., Doroshenko, T. N., Yakovuk, V. A., Shevchenko, O. S., Vasilyeva, L. A., & Pastarnak, I. N. (2014). Species diversity and abundance of zoophages as a basic resource of the ecological pest management program for suppression of the codling moth Cydia pomonella (L.)(Lepidoptera, Tortricidae) and secondary arthropod pests in the apple orchard agroecosystems of southern Russia. Entomological Review, 94(8), 1073-1090.

For a free PDF please send an email to sreznik@zin.ru 

The species diversity and number of zoophagous arthropods as estimated by Margalef’s d index (1958) are the main biological sources of agroecosystem stability. This fact forms the basis of the ecological pest and its enemy management (EPEM) program, which has demonstrated high technical and ecological efficiency, the former referring to the main task of pest control, and the latter, to survival of the natural enemies of the pest and reducing the level of ecological hazard in orchards. Complete and reduced EPEM programs involving five (EPEM-5), four (EPEM-4) and three (EPEM-3) treatments per season with environment friendly synergistic compounds were tested in the ecological and organic apple orchards in the North Caucasus. The results confirm the possibility to protect the orchards by complete (6 treatments) and reduced (4 treatments) versions of EPEM using ecopreparations (bioregulators: Insegar, Match, Dimilin; biopesticides: FitovermTM, FermovirinTM, LepidocideTM, etc.) to suppress the codling moth and secondary pests while increasing the activity of natural enemies. The EPEM-4 treatment cost in Krasnodar Territory, Northwestern Caucasus is on average half that of the conventional orchard protection measures.