- - AGRICULTURE CORE CURRICULUM - - (CLF6000) Advanced Core Cluster: ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURE (CLF6300) Unit Title: DISEASES AND PESTS OF ORNAMENTAL PLANTS ____________________________________________________________________________ (CLF6304) Topic: INTRODUCTION TO Time Taught in Year(s) INTEGRATED PEST 1-2 hours 2 and 3 MANAGEMENT (IPM) ____________________________________________________________________________ Topic Objectives: Upon completion of this lesson the student will be able to: Learning Outcome #: (E-4) - Distinguish between pest prevention, suppression, and eradication. (E-5) - Define Integrated Pest Management (IPM). (E-5) - Discuss ways to implement IPM into a management program. (E-7) - Explain the differences between cultural, mechanical, biological, and chemical control. (E-7) - Demonstrate examples of cultural, mechanical, biological, and chemical control. Special Materials and Equipment: References: Agrios, George N. (1978). PLANT PATHOLOGY (2nd ed.). NY: Academic Press. (pp. 7, 172-191, 435-446, 549-580, 612-623) Davidson, Ralph H., & Lyon, William F. (1987). INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD (8th ed.). NY: John Wiley & Sons. (pp. 62-85) Hartmann, Hudson T., Kofranek, Anton M., Rubatzky, Vincent E., & Flocker, William J. (1988). PLANT SCIENCE: GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT, AND UTILIZATION OF CULTIVATED PLANTS (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Marer, Patrick J. (1988). THE SAFE AND EFFECTIVE USE OF PESTICIDES. University of California, Statewide Integrated Pest Management Project, Div. of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Publication #3324, 387 pages. Available from: Publications, Div. of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Univ. of California, 6701 San Pablo Avenue, Oakland, CA 94608-1239. (415) 642-2431 Evaluation: Unit Examination TOPIC PRESENTATION: INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT INTRODUCTION A. Integrated pest management programs involve the blending (or integrating) of various methods to manage the pests in a crop in an economically and environmentally sound manner, rather than relying only on the application of pesticides. 1. The focus of an IPM program is producing a good quality crop, not just killing pests. 2. Natural factors in the ecosystem, especially natural enemies and weather, are monitored to determine their impact on pests and crop health and guide management decisions. 3. Pesticides, especially insecticides, are used primarily when field monitoring programs indicate that pest numbers will rise to levels that will cause economic damage. B. IPM uses an array of cultural, mechanical, biological, and chemical methods to keep pest damage within economically acceptable levels. C. All of this is done while keeping the balance of the ecosystem in mind. D. IPM involves a single unified program whose goal is to reduce a pest population to an acceptable level and then maintain it at that level. INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT A. A pest management program can be directed at preventing, suppressing, or eradicating the pest species. IPM programs are directed at preventing and suppressing pests. 1. There are often environmentally sound and economical methods to prevent damage or losses before pests arrive or populations get high. a. One method is to plant pest-free seed, and another is to grow varieties of crops that are resistant to insects and pathogens. b. Changing the planting or harvest dates will often help minimize pest problems. c. Using practices that conserve natural enemies of pests will often help. d. Pesticides can also be used to prevent a problem. 1) Many pesticides used to prevent plant diseases are applied to crop plants before infection occurs. 2) Weeds are often treated with preplant herbicides before they can emerge to compete with the crop plants. 2. Pest suppression methods are used to reduce populations in order to limit competition and damage to the crop. a. These methods do not always eliminate the pest, but they do reduce the population. b. This is a level that the grower can tolerate as it keeps pest damage at an economically acceptable level. c. Suppression techniques include pesticide applications, release of predator insects, and destruction of weed hosts. 3. Eradication is the total elimination of a pest from a specific area; it is not a goal of integrated pest management programs. a. Eradication is the usual goal of pest control efforts in buildings and other confined areas, e.g., storage facilities, grain dryers. b. Over larger areas, eradication can be expensive and often has limited success. c. Eradication programs over large geographical areas are usually directed at exotic or introduced pests potentially causing an area-wide economic threat, e.g., Medfly and Japanese beetle. B. Which pest is giving you the problem? 1. Before you can control a pest, you must be able to identify it. 2. Be sure that the injury and/or damage is actually due to the identified pest. 3. Once confirmed that the identified pest is the cause, become familiar with the pest's life cycle, growth, habits of reproduction, and natural predators. 4. Learn how to check for the pest in the field. Make weekly field checks and keep written records of pest and natural enemy populations. C. There are several ways to manage a pest. 1. Cultural practices make the environment less favorable for the survival, growth, and reproduction of the pest. a. Some cultural methods that are used include: 1) leaving the infected areas fallow (It is important to keep susceptible host plants out of the field.) 2) frequent cultivation 3) adjusting dates of planting and harvest 4) crop rotation 5) choice of clean, viable seed and proven varieties 6) water management 7) solarization. 2. Mechanical methods use machines and equipment to remove or destroy pests or prevent invasions. a. Mechanical methods include: 1) Use of barriers such as screens, netting, dusty furrows, and sticky barriers. 2) Artificially raising or lowering temperatures (nursery operations). 3) Direct mechanical destruction, such as use of shredders, rollers, plows, soil pulverizers, and, most recently, vacuums. 4) Steam sterilizing of soil (nursery operations) and flaming (orchard weeds). b. An advantage of using mechanical methods is that hand labor can be used and there is no chemical residue. c. Hand labor, however, is sometimes more costly than other methods. 3. Biological control is one of the oldest forms of pest control. a. In biological control we depend on the action of parasites, predators, or pathogens on a host. b. The result is a reduction of the pest population. c. Biological control is more economical than chemicals over a long period of time. Once established, it remains effective as long as it is undisturbed. d. Traditional biological control includes: 1) introduction of exotic species to control specific pests 2) conservation of the pest's native parasites and predators 3) augmentation of parasites, predators, and pathogens. e. These are several classic examples of successes using biological control: 1) Importation of a ladybird beetle (the vedalia beetle) to control cottony cushion scale on California citrus. 2) Importation of a parasitic wasp to help control the walnut aphid. 3) Control of Klamath weed with the Klamath weed beetle. f. Advantages of biological control are economy, safety, and permanence (effect is specific, cumulative, and persistent). g. Biological control is not suited to every pest situation because pests differ and there are no natural enemies known as yet for some; also, some natural enemies cannot be successfully established at all sites. h. Successful maintenance of natural enemies requires the presence of some level of pest species. 4. Host plant resistance is another method of control. In this case the plant itself can resist infestation due to its structure or other phenotype characteristic. 5. Pesticides often have a primary role in pest management. a. The potential dangers of pesticide chemicals to humans, food products, animals, and the environment makes them the least desirable method of controlling agricultural pests. b. However, pesticides are often the only method of control available. c. Pesticides provide a barrier between the plant and the attacking pest. d. The use of chemical pesticides is often beneficial because: 1) They are effective. 2) They control pests easily and quickly. 3) Their costs are reasonable compared to some other alternatives. e. A major problem with pesticides has been the development of strains of pests that can no longer be controlled by them (pesticide resistance). f. Also--if not properly integrated--pesticides can kill beneficial predators. g. Because of the extreme importance of the safe use of chemical pesticides, unit (CLF6303) discusses this topic. D. Some pest problems cannot be successfully controlled on the local level. 1. These problems involve pests that are widespread throughout agriculture, forests, or ornamentals. 2. State and federal laws authorize quarantines, regulate pesticides, establish tolerances, and initiate extermination campaigns. E. Weeds, insects, and pathogens affect the quality of the products taken to market. 1. Ways that these pests affect the quality are: a. Size, shape, and color are often changed; the fruit and flowers are misshapen, scarred, or rotted; and poor growth, yellowed leaves, deformed plant parts all lower the overall quality of plants. b. Flowers, fruit, and vegetables are contaminated with weed seeds, insect frass, insect parts, and pathogens. c. Some fungi, weeds, and other organisms are toxic to people and livestock. d. Poor growth results in smaller and fewer seeds, flowers, foliage, fruit, leaves, or harvested plants. F. Buyers expect a clean and wholesome product; the goal is to provide it. They eventually determine what is grown by their preferences at the marketplace. __________________________________________________________ ACTIVITY: 1. Visit a grower or nursery utilizing IPM on a commercial basis. 2. Grow test plots using: a. conventional chemical control b. IPM control c. no control 3. Look at IPM slide sets from University of California. (These are available from Visual Media, University of California, Davis, CA 95616 (916) 757-8980.) 4. Collect beneficial insects such as ladybugs and praying mantises. __________________________________________________________ 1/4/91 MT/clh #%&C