Molecular Identification and Characterization of Biological Control Agents of Red Palm Weevil

Abstract

The red palm weevil is a date palm pest that is very destructive with a devastating economic and ecological impact on the global population. The traditional methods of management such as the use of chemical insecticides and pheromone traps do not always suffice because of the pesticide resistance, environmental risk and because larvae hide in the shadows and has a feeding habit. Biological control agents such as fungi, bacteria, nematodes, parasitoids as well as predators have been offered as effective and eco-friendly alternatives to the control of pests. The identification, characterization and application of biological control agents have been altered by molecular tools (DNA barcoding, PCR-based, multilocus phylogenetics, next-generation sequencing) providing a means to select the precise strain of the agent, identify cryptic diversity and predict efficacy and ecological, allowing adaptation. Molecular characterization of native biological control agents that are used to treat a variety of regions show that they are continuously more effective in increasing the efficiency of the pest control. Nonetheless, the bottlenecks such as the dearth of reference databases and lack of accessibility to sophisticated technologies in the underdeveloped nations notwithstanding, in the developing nations, incorporating molecular methods with biological control agents gives a viable way forward towards successful, area specific control of the red palm weevil. It is not only a method of reducing the usage of chemical pesticides but also a method of providing ecological and agricultural system with long-term sustainability.