Principles of Dose Acquisition for Bioinsecticides

Although dose acquisition is a process common to all pesticides, including biopesticides, the information on use of microbial agents is dominated by bioinsecticides, reflecting the need to manage the many insect pests in all sec tors of crop production. This chapter, therefore, deals with aspects of the dose-transfer process for bioinsecticides, concentrating on the key interactions between hosts and microbial pathogens. In this respect, dose acquisition is considered from the three fundamental aspects of the target host, the microbial agent, and the matching of dosage to target in the field. Discussion then concentrates on how quantitative biological information on these three aspects enables dose requirement and tank mix for the given bioinsecticide to be calculated.