Mulches for Insect Pest and Disease Management

Demand for organic food production and environmental pollution caused by the synthetic insecticides and fungicides stresses the need for non-chemical insect pest and disease pathogen control. In this chapter, the possibility to use various kinds of mulches for control disease pathogens and insect pests has been assessed. For instance, straw mulch provides an indirect control of insect pests by facilitating the living and proliferation of predators. Subsequently the increased activity or populations of predators will help eating more of the insect pests. Similarly, colored plastic mulches change the spectrum of incident light, and this negatively impacts the behavior of an insect pest. This provides a way to repel or deflect many of the insect pests particularly in the high-value crops. Straw or other mulches of organic origins are likely to enhance the activities of biocontrol agents or increase the concentration and activities of certain enzymes (such as cellulase) that could suppress disease pathogens (by dissolving cell walls of the pathogens). Mulches also modify the soil properties positively, and the soil with changed properties is more likely to express suppressive behavior against the disease pathogens.