MTT Agrifood Research Finland. (2014, September 1). Greenhouse whitefly: Will the unwanted greenhouse guest make it in the wild?. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 2, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140901102221.htm
Greenhouse whitefly is a widespread invasive pest, which has occurred in Finland since the year 1920. The greenhouse whitefly is not native to Finland but survives as it finds suitable overwintering habitats in greenhouses. Insecticides have not helped as much as they would want. They fly is a generalist herbivore which means it can almost eat anything. If biological pest control was used, whitefly populations were more susceptible to insecticides, whereas whiteflies from greenhouses treated with insecticides over the years showed initial signs of resistance development.
This is important because it shows that our unnatural desire to grow crops where and when they don’t belong. Our unnatural desire creates problems that we try to fix with pesticides which decrease their effectiveness. It also shows that if we use what nature gives us it can be a lot more beneficial in the long run. Creating generalist creatures that are resistant to pesticides sounds like a nightmare for the agriculture industry
This is a very interesting article that is very prevalent to our culture. It raises the question, “What is more important, food production or with economic benefits or destruction of species along with environmental repercussions.” In order to have a win win situation, we must devise alternative methods of harvesting crops.
well the obvious solution is to ask people to empty all the greenhouses for a single year. this would illuminate the need to use insecticides because with no warm environment to survive in through the winter the flies would die out.