Management of air-borne viruses by "optical barriers" in protected agriculture and open-field crops.

The incurable nature of viral diseases and the public awareness to the harmful effects of chemical pest control to the environment and human health led to the rise of the integrated pest management (IPM) concept. Cultural control methods serve today as a central pivot in the implementation of IPM. This group of methods is based on the understanding of the complex interactions between disease agents and their vectors as well as the interactions between the vectors and their habitat. This chapter describes a set of cultural control methods that are based on solar light manipulation in a way that interferes with vision behavior of insects, resulting in a significant crop protection against insect pests and their vectored viruses.