Turning the Tables

Abstract

Just about everything we do is affected by pests of one form or another, and over the years we have invented an armory of chemical pesticides that have allowed for enormous improvements in agricultural and horticultural yields. However, most of these chemicals are powerful and indiscriminate poisons, and worries over the adverse environmental impact of heavy usage of chemicals like these are increasing. As we have seen so far in this book, fungi are very effective pests of other creatures in their own right, so it’s not surprising that attention is turning to the use of fungi as control agents by harnessing their natural antagonisms to pests of our crops, and there is potential for us to use fungi in Controlling other fungi that cause diseases of crops, as well as insect pests, nematode worms, and even weeds.