Final answer:
To prevent pest infestations, deny them food with pest resistant cultivars and interplanting, use traps and physical barriers to reduce numbers, and apply pesticides carefully to protect natural enemies and the environment.
Step-by-step explanation:
To prevent pests from infesting an area, it is important to deny them three critical elements: food, shelter, and reproduction opportunities. For example, pest resistant cultivars can be used, alongside practices like interplanting with other crops such as wheat or maize, to reduce the appeal of the crops to certain pests. Another strategy involves the use of traps and physical barriers, where lamps and poplar twigs are utilized to trap and kill adult pests, thereby lessening their numbers and reproduction capabilities.
When it comes to pesticides, careful application to targeted areas of the plant, such as the stem, rather than indiscriminate spraying, helps in managing pest populations while minimizing harm to natural enemies of the pests and the environment. Natural predators and landscape diversity, including a variety of plants that repel or attract predators of the pests, often play a vital role in ecologically based pest control measures.