The North American Scenario

The first glimmering that microbes could be used to control insects is generally traced back to 1834 when Aogostino Bassi discovered that a fungus, Beauveria bassiana, caused an infectious disease in the silkworm. However, it was not until some 40 yr later that the first attempts were made to use insect pathogens to control pest populations, when Metchnikoff in Russia experimented with Metarhizium amsophae for control of a beetle attacking wheat. Large scale attempts to use insect pathogens took place in the United States toward the end of the 19th century, when a variety of pathogens were evaluated for control of the chinch bug (1 ).