Push-pull Strategy for Insect Pest Management

The ‘push-pull’ strategy, a novel tool for integrated pest management programs, uses a combination of behavior-modifying stimuli to manipulate the distribution and abundance of insect pests and/or natural enemies. In this strategy, the pests are repelled or deterred away from the main crop (push) by using stimuli that mask host apparency or are repellent or deterrent. The pests are simultaneously attracted (pull), using highly apparent and attractive stimuli, to other areas such as traps or trap crops where they are concentrated, facilitating their control. The term ‘push-pull’ was first conceived as a strategy for insect pest management by Pyke, Rice, Sabine and Zaluki in Australia in1987. They investigated the use of repellent and attractive stimuli, deployed in tandem, to manipulate the distribution of Heliocoverpa spp. in cotton to reduce reliance on insecticides, to which the moths were becoming resistant. The concept was later formalized and refined by Miller and Cowles in the US in 1990, who termed the strategy ‘stimulodeterrent diversion’ while developing alternatives to insecticides for control of the onion fly, Delia antiqua. The development of a reliable, robust, and sustainable push-pull strategy requires a clear scientific understanding of the pest’s biology and the behavioral/chemical ecology of the interactions with its hosts, conspecifics, and natural enemies. The specific combination of components differs in each strategy according to the pest to be controlled (its specificity, sensory abilities, and mobility) and the resource targeted for protection. Among several push-pull strategies under development or used in practice for insect pest control, the most successful example of the push-pull strategy currently being used by farmers was developed in Africa for controlling stemborers on cereal crops. This strategy was developed using technologies appropriate to resource poor farmers and has shown a high adoption rate and spontaneous technology transfer by farmers, resulting in significant impact on food security by increased farm production in the region.