Sterile Insect Technique: Principles and Practice in Area-Wide Integrated Pest Management

It is a challenge to bring together all relevant information about the sterile insect technique (SIT) and its application in area-wide integrated pest management (AW- IPM) programmes; this book is the first attempt to do this in a thematic way. Since SIT practitioners tend to operate in the context of only one insect pest species, it was also a challenge for authors to develop and write their chapters from generic and global points of view, stressing the principles of the technology, and including examples from a range of pest species. We appreciate the understanding shown by the authors in accepting our many suggestions to emphasize the principles of the technology and to minimize details of field programmes. We also thank them for their patience with the prolonged editing process of the book. We are especially grateful to the authors for writing the chapters without financial compensation. Authors who are retired, or worked on their own time, deserve special commendation. Each chapter was peer-reviewed, and we thank the reviewers for helping to make the book accurate, complete, up-to-date, and generic in content. The need for this book has been evident for many years, and now that it has finally been published, it is expected to serve the scientific community for many years to come. We are pleased to have been able to participate in its development.

The sterile insect technique (SIT) is an environment-friendly method of pest control that integrates well into area-wide integrated pest management (AW-IPM) programmes. A first of its kind, this book takes a generic, comprehensive, and global approach in describing the principles and practice of the SIT. The strengths and weaknesses, and successes and failures, of the SIT are evaluated openly and fairly from a scientific perspective. The SIT is applicable to some major pests of plant, animal and human health importance, and criteria are provided to guide in the selection of pests appropriate for the SIT.

A great variety of subjects are covered, from the history of the SIT to improved prospects for its future application. The major chapters discuss the principles, technical components, and application of sterile insects. The four main strategic options in using the SIT ― suppression, containment, prevention, and eradication ― with examples of each option, are described in detail. Other chapters deal with supportive technologies, economic, environmental, and management considerations, and the socio-economic impact of AW-IPM programmes that integrate the SIT.

This book provides a wealth of information and reference material never before available in one volume. It will be a standard reference on the subject for many years. The authors, from 19 countries, are highly experienced in the subject, and reflect the international character of SIT activities.

Since no university offers courses on the SIT, the book’s audience will be mainly students in general animal and plant health courses, but the in-depth reviews of all aspects of the SIT and its integration into AW-IPM programmes will be of great value to researchers, teachers, animal and plant health practitioners, and policy makers.