The use of Biological Control methods is on the increase, mainly as a result of the mobilization of human resources in entomology studies since the establishment of graduate programs in this country in the 1960s. This review approaches the retrospective of Biological Control in Brazil in recent decades, with an emphasis on the "culture of applying agrochemicals" adopted by Brazilian growers, which constrains progress in this area. Successful cases of Biological Control have been reported on in Brazil and there are, in fact, excellent programs in place that use insects or entomopathogenic microrganisms for insect pest control. Most of the studies in this area have been published in Portuguese and are, therefore, not readily available internationally. Importantly, half of the planted sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum), around four million hectares, is treated with natural enemies (insects) and/or pathogens. In contrast to other countries that employ Biological Control in small areas, the challenge in Brazil is to implement programs in large farms. Many obstacles must be overcome and discussed in working groups so that we can assume a world leadership position in the use of Biological Control in tropical regions as Brazil is already considered the leader in tropical agriculture. In this review, use of Biological Control is discussed within the Integrated Pest Management philosophy, as a path toward sustainable agriculture that is in harmony with other pest control methods. We must develop a technology of Biological Control adapted to tropical regions, rather than copying models developed for temperate regions, which are usually inappropriate for Brazilian conditions

BACKGROUND: Defoliation by Anticarsia gemmatalis (Hübner), Pseudoplusia includens (Walker), Spodoptera eridania (Cramer), S. cosmioides (Walker) and S. frugiperda (JE Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) was evaluated in four soybean genotypes. A multiple‐species economic threshold (ET), based upon the species' feeding capacity, is proposed with the aim of improving growers' management decisions on when to initiate control measures for the species complex.RESULTS: Consumption by A. gemmatalis, S. cosmioides or S. eridania on different genotypes was similar. The highest consumption of P. includens was 92.7 cm² on Codetec 219RR; that of S. frugiperda was 118 cm² on Codetec 219RR and 115.1 cm² on MSoy 8787RR. The insect injury equivalent for S. cosmoides, calculated on the basis of insect consumption, was double the standard consumption by A. gemmatalis, and statistically different from the other species tested, which were similar to each other.CONCLUSIONS: As S. cosmioides always defoliated nearly twice the leaf area of the other species, the injury equivalent would be 2 for this lepidopteran species and 1 for the other species. The recommended multiple‐species ET to trigger the beginning of insect control would then be 20 insect equivalents per linear metre. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry

Results of studies with Trichogramma in Brazil are presented, especially those developed at ESALQ/USP in the past two decades (1984-2004). The project involved taxonomy, rearing techniques, biological and behavioral aspects of the pests and parasitoids, pest population dynamics, release techniques, selectivity studies, and efficiency evaluation. It can be considered a model project and has been adopted by other biological control programs in Brazil and Latin America. The program has given rise to a number of publications, allowing the formation of human resources in this area and opening new research areas. The results indicated that the parasitoid can be used to control key pests in cotton, sugarcane, stored grain, vegetables, corn, soybean, and tomato. The perspective of using the parasitoid has stimulated the creation of companies to commercialize it in Brazil, thus more easily transferring this technology to users.