Chapter 25. Gordon R. Conway. 1972. Ecological aspects of pest control in Malaysia. Pages 467-488.

Keywords: use of broad-spectrum, contact-acting insecticides has been increasing in Malaysia, it has brought considerable benefits such as control of rice pests, locusts, and mosquitoes, but in cocoa and oil palm existing problems have been aggravated and new ones have been created, when pesticides were first used the losses were minimal but after usage many pest outbreaks occurred, these problems were corrected when pesticide usage was curtailed, the lesson learned was that selective pesticides should have been used that had minimal effect on beneficial arthropods, this recommendation has been carried out on rubber to control white grubs, DDT usage in homes to control mosquitoes has resulted in an unwanted side effects such as a larva Herculia nigrivitta that feeds on the thatch of homes and is normally held in check by a parasitoid Antrocephalus sp., as well as killing house lizards and cats, removal of the forest has led to extensive stands of lalang grass Imperata cylindrica, history of pesticide usage in Malaysia, cocoa pests in Sabah, early pests were ring bark borer Endoclita hosei and two branch borers Zeuzera spp., at first control was carried out by hand removal, but in 1959 DDT and dieldrin were used but right away new pest problems emerged in the form of leaf-eating caterpillars and aphids and mealybugs, in 1961 an outbreak of branch borers resulted followed by leaf-eating caterpillars Hyposidra talaca and Setora nitens, then a third outbreak from a flatid Colbesthes falcata, this was followed by , an outbreak of bagworms Clania and Mahesena, spraying was stopped in 1961 and natural control was re-established in 1962 followed by selective control measures, in 1963 new pests Helopeltis clavifer and

Platyngomiriodes apiformis began spreading, oil palm pests in Malaysia, oil palm is grown as a monoculture unlike cocoa, similar problems occurred as a result of increased use of insecticides, bagworms Cremastopsyche pendula and Metisa plana became pests, aerial application of trichlorphon, rubber pests in Malaya, cockchafers Psilopholis vestita and Lachnosterna bidentata, grubs kill young rubber saplings by eating the roots, malaria control