Description

Studies related to the effect of insecticides on insect pests and nontarget organisms, such as natural enemies, are traditionally accessed by the estimative of lethal effects, through mortality data. Due to the limitations of the traditional methods, recent studies in the past three decades are assessing the sublethal effects of insecticides upon several important biological traits of insect pests and natural enemies. Besides mortality, the sublethal dose/concentrations of an insecticide can affect insect biology, physiology, behavior and demographic parameters. In this chapter, many sublethal effects of insecticides were addressed for several chemical groups, such as botanical insecticides, carbamate, diamide, insect growth regulators, neonicotinoid, organochlorides, organophosphates, pyrethroid and others. An accurate assessment of these effects is crucial to acquire knowledge on the overall insecticide efficacy in the management of pest insect populations, as well as on their selectivity toward nontarget organisms.

Chapter