Which pest management strategy involves rotating crops to disrupt pest life cycles?

Cultural control is focused on practices that alter the environment to make it less conducive to pest infestations. Rotating crops is a key component of this strategy because it disrupts the life cycles of pests that are specific to certain crops. Pests often thrive when their host plants are continuously available; therefore, crop rotation breaks this cycle by periodically changing the types of plants grown in a particular area. This not only deprives pests of their preferred food source but also helps improve soil health and reduce pest populations over time.

Biological control, on the other hand, involves using natural predators or pathogens to manage pest populations but does not specifically include practices like crop rotation. Mechanical control refers to physical methods such as traps and barriers, which do not facilitate the disruption of biological life cycles through planting practices. Chemical control entails using pesticides to manage pests directly, which does not involve the ecological approach of rotating crops. Thus, cultural control's emphasis on altering farming practices, including crop rotation, clearly positions it as the correct answer for the strategy that disrupts pest life cycles.