- - AGRICULTURE CORE CURRICULUM - - (CLF7000) Advanced Core Cluster: PLANT AND SOIL SCIENCE (CLF7350) Unit Title: PLANT PATHOGENS AND PESTS ____________________________________________________________________________ (CLF7351) Topic: AN INTRODUCTION TO Time Taught in Year(s) INTEGRATED PEST 2 hours 3 and 4 MANAGEMENT ____________________________________________________________________________ Topic Objectives: Upon completion of this lesson the student will be able to: Learning Outcome #: (F-1) - Discuss how pests and disease affect quality grades of produce. (F-5) - Distinguish between pest prevention, suppression, and eradication. (F-6) - Define integrated pest management (IPM). (F-6) - Discuss ways to implement IPM principles into a management program. (F-7) - Explain the differences between cultural, mechanical, biological, and chemical control. (F-7) - Demonstrate examples of cultural, mechanical, biological and chemical control. Special Materials and Equipment: Space for test plots. References: Agrios. PLANT PATHOLOGY. 2nd edition. pg 110. 115-143. Davidson. INSECT PESTS. 8th edition. pg 62-85. Flint, and Vanden, B. (1981). INTRODUCTION TO INTEGRATED PESTICIDE MANAGEMENT. Flint. (1990). PESTS OF THE GARDEN AND SMALL FARM: A GROWERS GUIDE TO USING LESS PESTICIDES, Pub 3332. Hartman. PLANT SCIENCE. 2nd edition. pg 237-266 Marer, P. THE SAFE AND EFFECTIVE USE OF PESTICIDES. pg 59-70. IPM GROUP. IPM Manual Series (available from UC ANR Publish. 415-642-2431. Slide sets of the photos in the books available from Visual Media University of California Davis, CA 95616 916-757-8980 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 just relying on the single approach of pesticides. 1. The focus of an IPM program is producing a good quality crop not killing pests. 2. Natural factors in the agroecosystem, 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. Integrated Pest Management uses an array of cultural, mechanical, biological and chemical methods to keep pest damage below economic levels. C. All of this is being done while keeping the balance of our ecosystem in mind. D. It involves a single unified program whose goal is to reduce a pest population to an acceptable level and then maintaining 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. We might consider planting pest-free seed, or growing varieties that are resistant to insects and pathogens. b. Often changing the planting or harvest dates will 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 reduce their population. b. This is a level that the grower can tolerate as it keeps pest damage below an economic level. c. Suppression techniques would include pesticide applications, release of predator insects, and cultivation of weeds. 3. Eradication is the total elimination of a pest from a specific area. (Note: Eradication is not a goal of integrated pest management programs.) a. This is the common 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 pests life cycle, growth, habits of reproduction, and natural predators. 4. Learn how to check for the pest in the field. Make regular (e.g.) 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) frequent cultivation, 2) fallow (important to keep susceptible host plants out of the field), 3) adjusting dates of planting and harvest, 4) crop rotation, 5) choice of clean, viable seed and proven varieties, 6) water management, and 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 screen, netting and dusty furrows, and sticky barriers. 2) Artificially raising or lowering temperatures, (e.g., nursery operation). 3) Direct mechanical destruction such as use of shredders, rollers, plows and soil pulverizers, and most recently, vacuums. 4) Steam sterilizing of soil (nursery operation) and flaming (orchard weeds). b. Advantages of using mechanical methods are that hand labor can be used and there is no chemical residue. c. Hand labor, however could be 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 reducing the pest population. c. It is more economical than chemicals over a long period of time. Once established, biological control may remain effective forever if undisturbed. d. Traditional biological control includes: 1) introduction of exotic species, 2) conservation of native parasites and predators, and 3) augmentation of parasites, predators and pathogens. e. We have several classic examples of successes: 1) Importation of a lady bird 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. h. Successful maintenance of natural enemies require 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 that we have. c. Pesticides provide a barrier between the plant and the attacking pest. d. The major benefits derived from the use of chemical pesticides include: 1) their effectiveness, 2) the ease and speed of controlling pests, and 3) their reasonable costs compared to some other alternatives. e. A major problem with pesticides for farmers has been the development of strains of pests that can no longer be controlled by them (pesticide resistance). f. Because of the extreme importance of the safe use of chemical pesticides, a complete unit will be used to discuss this topic. D. Some pest problems cannot be successfully controlled on the local level. 1. These problems involve pests that seriously affect the health of the public or are likely to cause widespread damage to agriculture, forests, or ornamentals. 2. State and Federal laws authorize quarantines, regulate pesticides, establish tolerances, and initiate extermination campaigns. E. Weed, insects and pathogens affect the quality of the products that we take to market. 1. Ways that these pests affect the quality are: a. Size, shape, and color are often changed; the fruit is misshapen, scarred or rotted; and the result of poor growth, yellowed leaves, deformed plant parts all lower quality. b. Products 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 less number of seeds, fruit, leaves or other harvested plants. F. Consumers expect a clean and wholesome product; the goal is to provide it. The consumer eventually determines what is grown by their acceptance at the marketplace. __________________________________________________________ ACTIVITY: 1. Visit a grower utilizing IPM on a commercial basis. 2. Grow test plots. a. Using conventional chemical control, b. IPM control, and c. no control. 3. Look at IPM slide sets from University of California. 4. Collect beneficial arthropods. __________________________________________________________ 7/24/90 sg