Farmers sprayed rice paddies in Taiwan to suppress populations of a small rice mite.This also killed the populations of a predatory mite that controlled the numbers of rice mites.Soon the spraying did no good,and the damage to the rice from the rice mite was greater than before spraying had occurred.Few predatory mites existed in the paddies now.This happened because both mites were K-selected and resistance was a matter of chance.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The scenario described is an example of a pesticide paradox, where the use of pesticides initially reduces the population of a pest (rice mites) but also kills off its natural predators (predatory mites). Without these predators, the pest population can rebound to even higher levels than before due to lack of natural control, not necessarily because both mites were K-selected and resistance was a matter of chance. The key issue here is the disruption of natural predator-prey dynamics, not the reproductive strategies (r/K selection) of the mites or random chance resistance.

Farmers Sprayed Rice Paddies in Taiwan to Suppress Populations of a Small