Natural Enemies Handbook

The Natural Enemies Handbook was produced under the auspices of the University of California Statewide IPM Project and focuses strongly on biological control practices in the USA in general and California in particular.

The first paragraph of the opening chapter contains the following mini-review: "An illustrated guide to the identification and biology of beneficial organisms that control pests. Growers, pest control adviser, landscape professionals, home gardeners, pest management teachers and students, and anyone fascinated by natural enemies and their prey will find this book useful. It is meant to be a practical guide focusing on common natural enemies that growers and gardeners are likely to be able to find, identify, and use on almost any crop or in the garden and landscape."

That it lives up to this succinct and modest outline is beyond doubt. But the book offers much more than this. The major part of the book - seven of its nine chapters - has comprehensive reviews of groups of natural enemies with superb photographs, line drawings and illustrations. The first two chapters outline the principles of biological control in all its forms, along with descriptions of other crop protection practices and their integration in IPM. It provides nice examples of most forms of control and informs the reader of when they are most likely to be used alone or in combination with other control measures.

Throughout, the text is clear, concise, and instructive. It has an excellent glossary and goes to great lengths to explain technical terms and to introduce the reader to concepts and current issues in crop protection and biological control. For example, it provides a simple and effective explanation of the current debate on non-target effects, and has a box to explain what the difference is between a parasite and parasitoid.

The description and illustration of the taxonomic groups of parasitoids and predators is superb and probably more than the average interested home gardener will need, but excellent material for biocontrol course and student training. Another strength of this book is that it refers the reader frequently to scientific literature and major texts for more detail. The reference list at the end of the book is very comprehensive - if heavily biased towards the US literature. The book also contains a list of suggested further reading, and a list of resources.

In spite of its heavy bias towards crops and biological control in California, this book should have wide appeal to biological control trainers and students everywhere. I know of no other comparably well illustrated, comprehensive and readable account of natural enemies, and as such it could be widely used for training and implementation in developed and developing countries. I have only one quibble. In focusing on California they have totally ignored other sources of information on biological control - for example the Koppert and IOBC web sites, to name but two.

*Flint, M.L.; Dreistadt, S.H. (1998) Natural enemies handbook - the illustrated guide to biological pest control. Berkeley, CA, USA; University of California Press, 154 pp. ISBN 0 520 21801 9. Price: US$35.00 or UK£21.95.

By: Garry Hill, CABI Bioscience.