A brief overview of the relationship between Global warming and Insect outbreaks

Climate change can influence insect outbreaks in various ways. Warmer temperatures can accelerate insect development and reproduction rates, leading to population booms. Increasing temperature, rising CO2 concentration and the change in rainfall are favourable conditions for pest outbreaks. These lead to changes in insect diversity, abundance, population growth rate and biotic interactions resulting in more severe economic losses in agriculture. In addition to biological control techniques, under such sudden weather and climatic fluctuations, the effectiveness of chemical control would also be in doubt in future IPM programmes.