Vegetable Pests and their Management

Throughout the world, vegetables are an important element of the human diet, providing a vital source of carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. Some vegetables remain unique to specific cultures, whereas others have gained wide acceptance and have been transported to several continents where they are grown extensively. In many cases, insect pests have been transported to new continents as well (Figs. 9 and 10). In some cases, the insects apparently were transported along with the initial plant material. In other cases, the insects were introduced as “hitch-hikers” on other products, but once gaining entrance to their new home found it quite suitable because their host plants had preceded them. Another important source of pests is host adaptation or host switching, wherein insects adapted to feeding on a particular plant (often a weed or other non-crop plant) begin feeding on introduced crops. Such insects usually adapt to crop plants in the same plant family as their original host, or...