Integrated Pest Management

Table of Contents for
Integrated Pest Management BMP Booklet

INTRODUCTION

Whether or not we realize it, all of us rely on effective pest management to ensure adequate food supplies. We compete with insects, diseases and weeds for our share of food. It has been estimated that without pest management, pre-harvest crop losses would average 40 percent.

Honeybees act as pollinators and are an essential part of fruit production. They can be mistakenly poisoned by spray drift.

Since World War II and the discovery of DDT, society has increasingly looked to pesticides for pest control. However, reliance on this single pest management tool has brought with it a number of new challenges, which include:

• the development of resistant pest populations that are no longer controlled by specific pesticides, such as house flies, Colorado potato beetles, apple scab and triazine-resistant weeds such as lamb's quarters
• environmental health concerns, especially the contamination of water, by persistent pesticides such as aldicarb and atrazine
• the negative effects of pesticides on non-target species and beneficial species, e.g., fish and wildlife habitat adjacent to and beyond the areas being treated
• changes in the pest complex following the use of broad-spectrum pesticides, and the emergence of new pest species due to the elimination of competitors or beneficials, e.g., mites, white apple leafhopper in apples, pear psylla, nightshade in tomatoes
• a lack of new pesticides to counteract resistant populations and control emerging pests.

These challenges have sparked a search for new approaches to managing pests. Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, is a system of managing pests that involves aspects of more than one control method cultural, biological or chemical in a program that is both economically and environmentally sound.

Over 700 species of pests worldwide have become resistant to specific pesticides. Here are three examples: herbicide-resistant lamb's quarters (left); fungicide-resistant apple scab (centre); and insecticide-resistant Colorado potato beetle.

This chart shows how frequently the main pesticides appeared at the mouths of the Grand, Saugeen and Thames rivers, from 1981 to 1984.

Pesticides can be carried into streams and rivers via tile drains. Pest monitoring means the grower or scout looks in the field to establish the presence of pests. Pest identification involves finding out which pests are present in the field. Pest thresholds are reached when the pest numbers reach a certain level, and it s time to take action to control them.

Pesticide contamination of soil and water can be prevented by having a proper mixing and loading area.   Based on observation and knowledge, not a predetermined calendar date, IPM has four main steps: identifying the pest(s) monitoring pest and beneficial species determining pest thresholds choosing control options and assessing their effectiveness. IPM involves more than simply knowing that a pest is present and needs to be controlled. The objective is to keep the pest species below the population density that causes economic loss.

		Corn is scouted for European corn borer egg masses by checking plants by hand.
Field weather-station equipment monitors temperature and leaf wetness, and helps to forecast disease episodes on onions.

The Benefits

• it's a systems approach, based on unbiased monitoring techniques, and backed by research or field experience
• more efficient use of inputs such as pesticides, fuel, water and time than with conventional pest control
• less reliance on a single management method and greater use of a variety of methods pest resistance develops more slowly due to reduced selection pressure from chemicals
• chemicals are only used when necessary
  • fewer applications of pesticides due to better timing of sprays
  • less impact on soil and water, and non-target species of fish and wildlife
  • more stability in the pest complex with fewer emerging problems, because competitors and beneficials are not eliminated
  • longer availability of registered pesticides, because efficacy remains consistently high and improved spray coverage reduces use
• often an initial dramatic reduction in pesticide use and an immediate economic benefit to growers
• no loss of quality or yield

Pest control can take several approaches: mechanical control of weed seedlings (top); cultural control of seed-borne pests through use of certified seed (left); and biological control in this case, of flies with the help of Muscovy ducks (right).

* cost of scout @$30.00/ha. Source: B. Solymar, OMAFRA

Lacewings are important for biological control of aphids in many crops.	Calibrate your sprayer regularly: this will ensure that pesticides are applied at the correct rate with maximum spray coverage.

THE CHALLENGES

This weather recorder continually tracks temperature in an orchard.	Small research plots are used to test new IPM techniques in onions.	You can learn the latest IPM techniques at twilight meetings like this one in the Alliston area.

• availability of IPM systems varies from place to place, and is often unavailable to growers in isolated areas
  • cost of delivering a knowledge-based system is prohibitive where only a small area is grown.
• IPM programs aren't easily transferred from area to area
  • programs are unique to each crop production area because of variations in climates and pest complexes

The temperature recorder is kept in a ventilated white box called a Stevenson screen. A second machine, the Dewitt leaf wetness recorder, collects data to predict apple scab infection periods.	Pheromone traps are used to track the flight of tentiform leaf miner adults in apple orchards.	The Hirst spore trap is used to trap spores that initiate plant diseases.

INFORMATION SOURCES

How you obtain crop-specific pest management information will depend on the crop and the complexity of the problem. For relatively low-value crops such as hay or corn, with a per hectare value of about $600, information is delivered on a regional basis through radio broadcasts, newspapers, government publications and winter meetings. For high-value crops such as apples (per-hectare value of $7,500), or greenhouse flowers (per-hectare under-glass value of $300,000-$400,000), information is available through weekly on-farm scouting, daily recorded phone messages, as well as publications, newsletters and twilight meetings. In some instances, growers may run their own IPM programs, generating their own information while using extension staff as a resource.

Government publications are a good source of pest management information. Some titles are 'listed on the back cover.

TERMINOLOGY

Throughout this booklet, we'll be using terms that are basic to IPM. Here are some definitions to see you through.

Controls are applied as soon as the pest levels reach the action threshold.

This indirect pest, the tentiform leaf miner, attacks apple foliage. A low level is tolerated in commercial orchards.	The direct pest, the codling moth, attacks the apple fruit. This means there is a very low tolerance level of them in commercial orchards.	A stink bug is considered a beneficial insect. It helps to reduce the Colorado potato beetle population by eating beetle eggs.

Last Updated: Sunday, May 03, 2009 04:10:59 PM