Pest control is an important aspect of a farmer’s farming method. Farm pests cause crop damages amounting to about a million of dollars per year. With the aid of microscopes like biological monocular microscopes, researchers from the UK University of Cardiff have discovered a future breakthrough for pest control using the DNA found in a spider’s stomach. In the original article, biological monocular microscopes and DNA based techniques were used in identifying and analyzing the contents of the guts of a spider. This technique helped researchers in recognizing the prey that the spider ate in the field.
Spiders can be studied using biological monocular microscopes using a variety of magnification and applied with different microscopic techniques. The research team studied a species of spider called Linyphiidae or commonly known as money spiders. They were chosen because they prey on aphids and are considered as a controller of pest on farms. Aphids are pests but contain low nutritional value for the money spiders, leading them to prey on more “nutritious” victims. Most arable farms are infested with aphids.
By analyzing the stomach contents of the money spiders using biological monocular microscopes, the research team found out that aside from aphids, the spiders were eating large amounts of small insects called Collembola or commonly known as springtails. By studying and comparing the spiders’ stomach contents and using DNA analysis in conjunction with biological microscopes, researchers can pinpoint what prey the spiders prefer to eat when they have a choice and using that prey to bait more spiders. For example, if the researchers found out that the money spiders prefer species X of springtails, they will promote more of this species so that the number of spiders will increase and thus have a better control for the aphids.
The original article has mentioned that spiders, especially money spiders, have a vital role in pest control among arable crops. The spider webs of these money spiders usually encompass about fifty percent of the farm field where they inhabit. Using natural predators to kill these pests is also advantageous to one’s health compared to using chemical pesticides.
Aside from spiders, researchers are also applying the same techniques in analyzing other predators like the ground beetle. Ground beetles are natural predators for slugs, which are very damaging to crops in Europe , according to the original article. Spiders and ground beetles are just two of the many natural predators being used as pest control on farms today.
Not everyone knows that natural predators are important in pest controls. Usually, when you say pest control, what comes to mind are chemical pesticides. Today, most farms combine both natural predators and chemical pesticides in their pest control.
Currently, the use of chemical pesticides is regulated and has increased limitations to encourage the use of the much safer natural predators as pest control. This is a good thing because using chemical pesticides may cause diseases to the consumers and can sometimes damage the farm they are “protecting” as well. Read more on this topic