Introduction

• Economic decision level: It refers to assessment of actual field situation and action undertaken based on the degree of pest infestation and crop loss.
• Injury: It is defined as the physical harm or destruction to a valued commodity caused by the presence or activities of a pest (e.g., consuming leaves, tunneling in wood, feeding on blood, etc.).
• Damage: It is the monetary value lost to the commodity as a result of injury by the pest (e.g., spoilage, reduction in yield, loss of quality, etc.).
• Economic injury level: It is that pest population level which will cause economic damage to crops. Hence it is the economic injury that will satisfy the cost of artificial control measures. It may vary from place to place, season to season and consumer’s acceptability scale.
• Damage Threshold Level (DTL): That population of insect which cause certain damage even with certain small rise of population is known as DTL.
• Economic threshold level: It is the density of pest at which control measures should be applied to prevent an increasing pest population from reaching economic injury level.
• General equilibrium Level: The average density of pest population over a period of time is known as general equilibrium level.
• Pest Management: It is the manipulation of pests to maintain them below economic injury level. It is a way to keep pests below the levels where they can cause economic damage.
• Pest Control: In true sense, measures taken to prevent pest incidence, that initiate and spread the pest problems and finally minimize the loss caused by the pest is called pest control, a complete checkup of pests that results no problem.