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Review of Entomology & Pest Management by Larry P. Pedigo 4th E

Larry P. Pedigo's 4th edition of 'Entomology & Pest Management' serves as an excellent introductory text for applied entomology and insect pest management, catering to readers with minimal background in the subject. The book covers essential topics such as insect biology, pest management strategies, and includes revisions on precision farming and transgenic plants. It is particularly suitable for undergraduate students, while also serving as a valuable reference for various pest management techniques.

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26 views2 pages

Review of Entomology & Pest Management by Larry P. Pedigo 4th E

Larry P. Pedigo's 4th edition of 'Entomology & Pest Management' serves as an excellent introductory text for applied entomology and insect pest management, catering to readers with minimal background in the subject. The book covers essential topics such as insect biology, pest management strategies, and includes revisions on precision farming and transgenic plants. It is particularly suitable for undergraduate students, while also serving as a valuable reference for various pest management techniques.

Uploaded by

chethangowd0107
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Entomology & Pest Management, by Larry P.

Pedigo, 4th edition,


Prentice Hall, 2002, 742 pp., Hardbound. $78.75.

Larry Pedigo's 4th edition of Entomology & Pest


Management is an excellent text for an introductory course
in applied entomology and/or insect pest management.
The author assumes that the reader has only a rudimentary
background in biology, and perhaps none in entomology.
Thus, the reader is led through the basics of insect
structure and physiology, life cycles, behavior, classifica­
tion and ecology in the book's beginning chapters. There
is perhaps more biological detail here than needed for
undergraduate students Of an introductory insect pest
management class, yet I have found it easy to selectively
assign those sections of each early chapter that are most
relevant to my student's understanding of insects and
their relationship to people and the environment. A nice
revision to the 4th edition is Table 3.2, "Usual characteris~
tics of major pestand beneficial orders", in which diagnos­
tic visual characteristics of mouthparts, wings, etc. are
described for agriculturally important insect orders, along
with a brief synopsis of the group's importance as pest or
beneficial organisms.
The first five chapters of this text will prepare
students to I) use sight characteristics or simple binomial
keys to identify most insects (and some mites and ticks) to
the order level, 2) understand the basic anatomy, physiol­
ogy, and life cycles oLinsects, and 3) know something of
how insect populations are affected by climate, competi­
tion, predation and parasitism, and other ecological
conditions. This is a solid foundation upon which to build
an understanding of the theory and practice of modern
insect pest management.
The next two chapters provide clear overviews of
insect sampling theory and technique, as well as the
economic injury level concept as the basis for pest
management decision-making. Pedigo and his colleagues
have made significant contributions to our scientific
understanding of these concepts and the resulting text
chapters are very strong. Chapter 8, "Pest Management
Theory", provides a bit of historical perspective on the
origin of the modern pest management phenomenon as it
has evolved from simpler, generally cruder pest control
practices. This perspective is useful for current college
students to understand how far agricultural pest manage­
ment has come from the pre-synthetic pesticide days as
well as the post-WWII era dominated by chlorinated
hydrocarbon materials such as DDT and Chlordane. With
an understanding of arthropod biology and pest manage­
ment concepts and theory in hand, the reader of Entomol­
ogy & Pest Management is now ready to learn the specific
pest management strategies and practices as applied to
modern agriculture.

35
NACTA Journal-June 2002
The next 6 chapters cover the range of pest
management strategies including the use of natural enemies
in biological control, managing the crop environment to
minimize pest impact, use of insecticides and pest resistant
plants, modifying insect development and behavior
(particularly with semiochemicals), and use of sterile insect
and other genetic tactics. Each topic is developed very well
for an introductory pest management class, with sufficient
tables and appendices for reference on insecticide types,
names of beneficial and pest insects and useful world wide
web addresses.
The remaining 3 chapters tie together the theory
and strategies just presented into examples and case
studies of effective pest management, with primary
attention to agricultural crop and livestock scenarios.
Revisions to this 4th edition include sections on
site-specific (precision) farming ana its application to pest
management, a discussion of the Food Quality Protection
Act of 1996 and its impact on older classes of insecticides,
and an expanded treatment of the use of transgenic plants
for crop protection. The larger, more readable 4th edition
also has many new and newly edited photos, which make
for a more professional publication than the previous 3
editions.
It is difficult for one book, or one college course
for that matter, to effectively provide an introduction to the
bioiogy, behavior, systematics and ecology' of insects, and
at the sam~ time address the myriad of pest management
tactics and accompanying theory in a meaningful way.
Entomology & Pest Management accomplishes thisgmil
for the introductory or intermediate level student. While the
author indicates the target audience includes graduate
students, I have foun.d the material most appropriate for
undergraduates, though the text may also serve as a
reference on sampling techniques, Insecticide nomenclature
and formulation types, insect common names, etc. I have
successfully used earlier editions of this text for an
introductory insect pest management course since the first
edition was first published in 1989 and can strongly
recommend it for this type of course.

Mark Shelton
. Associate Dean
College of Agriculture
Cal Poly State University
San Luis Obispo, CA

36
NACTA Journal-June 2002

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