Ecological pest management (EPM): general approaches

Abstract Ecological pest management (EPM) uses many elements of integrated pest management (IPM) but it is based on keeping and supporting the natural stability of the agro‐ecosystem and suppressing pest outbreaks at the very beginning when the pest population density is still low. The stability of the agro‐ecosystem and high biodiversity may be achieved by certain combinations of different crops and lands with natural complexes of plants. If naturally beneficial insects cannot suppress the growth of the pest population density, artificially reared enemies of this pest should be used. The release in spring of artificially reared insects which eat weeds is supposed to be especially useful because these insects may also be a good food base for many predators and parasites. The biological method is supposed to be more effective when the density of the pest population is still low. The usage of chemical pesticides should be brought to a stop because they always decrease the ecosystem stability. EPM is proposed to replace IPM in future.