Transcript of the Episode and Show Notes
From UNH cooperative extension, this is Over-Informed on IPM
Welcome back to part two of a very philosophical discussion on Integrated Pest Management or IPM. Most of this podcast series will be dedicated to explaining the practice of IPM, however I’m going to use these introductory episodes to breakdown critical elements of IPM and in this episode I’m going to cover the first steps in IPM: Identify and monitor. So let’s start out with another definition of IPM:
Jan Nyrop, Cornell University and AgriTech: It is an information intensive, biologically-based, set of approaches for managing a pest. What I mean by information intensive – it is real time, it is integrated, it is using as much information, or as much data as you can, which is translated into management practices. That’s in the context of this complex biological system that you drive in the direction to a set of outcomes that are meaningful to you.
Anna: I really like this definition of an information intensive process – maybe because I just really love data. In theory, decisions should be easier to make if you have more information. That’s not always true but your very first step in IPM, a sometimes shockingly overlooked first step, is figuring out what’s causing the problem.
Extension offers many services to help you here – be it with providing photographs and factsheets on common pests in your area or by offering diagnostic services where you send samples in to be identified. Check out the website of your local extension offices for more information. If you are in New Hampshire, check out our website at extension.unh.edu to find instructions on how to use these services – and if you’re a commercial grower don’t forget to check the box as you will get different information from a home gardener.
The next step is to monitor that pest population so you know when action is necessary. But translating the data you collect from monitoring isn’t always so clear cut. This is something IPM specialists grapple with on a pretty regular basis and came up when I was asking another colleague to define IPM:
Daniel Frank, WVU: The short and sweet of it: multiple control tactics used in a compatible manner. But there’s so many more elements that go into IPM, such as correct pest identification and monitoring of that pest, establishment of thresholds, all in addition to those multiple control tactics. Also looking at the environmental impacts of what your control strategies are doing.
Anna: Is there anything that people get wrong when it comes to IPM?
Daniel: I don’t know if people get things wrong necessarily, but there’s a lot of disagreement as to what IPM is. For example, I was just talking to a grower and trying to get them to implement certain IPM strategies, or just implement IPM in general. They said “Oh yeah, we do IPM”. So I asked them what, specifically, they were doing that was IPM because I knew that this particular grower was spraying on a calendar basis – bi-weekly sprays. They said they had traps out monitoring insects…so they are doing the monitoring but they’re not basing their sprays on what they’re catching. SO I guess there’s a lot of, maybe not being able to put the pieces together?
But just because you are doing some elements of an IPM program doesn’t mean its IPM…well I guess you could argue that it is IPM because he was monitoring…but spraying on a bi-weekly/monthly basis is not IPM.
Anna: So in IPM theory, you keep an eye on bad guys until they get out of hand and then you act to manage that pest population before it hurts your bottom line. But just monitoring for the sake of monitoring is a waste of time, especially if you’re not using that information to make management decisions. What if your monitoring approaches are not detecting a threatening population early enough for you to act? When are pre-emptive strikes appropriate?
Heather Faubert, URI: I was there, not quite at the beginning of apple IPM, but pretty close to the beginning. For disease, and for apple scab in particular, we were telling people to wait until you have an infection period and then go in and use materials that give you “kick back”. This material would give you 24 or 48 hours of kickback and that material would give you 24 hours of kickback, and this other material would give you up to five days of kickback. Well it soon became apparent that we couldn’t live this way, we need to do things the way we’ve always been doing them by applying preventative sprays for apple scab. Maybe rely on those kickback sprays when you get in trouble. A lot of growers think, if I’m spraying my fungicides, I might as well put my insecticides in because I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to spray again. I don’t think that IPM has, at least in fruit trees, panned out the way we thought it would back in the late 70s, early 80s.
Anna: That could be a good example of how philosophical concepts have modernized. If it started out saying you should only act when you see a population that’s threatening, you should only act based on things you actually see out in the field. The more data we collect and the more experience we have – preventative approaches are an appropriate part of IPM?
Heather: Yeah and for insects as well. If you have a problem with codling moth, and a lot of growers had problems with codling moth last year, and so do we now just need to rely on degree day models and act according to that? And call that IPM instead of waiting to see?
Anna: Because development of many pest insects and pathogens can be predicted based on temperature – sometimes monitoring means keeping an eye on the weather.
If you are not familiar with the NEWA website – that’s the network for environment and weather applications – you really should check it out at newa.cornell.edu. There are predictive models for lots of fruit diseases and insect pests that could be helpful for you. Here in New Hampshire, we have joined the Cornell network and have set up weather stations to supply data to predictive models. These weather stations are located on farms around the state – one might be near your farm - and supply a much better source of data than the weather stations we normally get our weather, which usually comes from airports or from some urban environments that can be affected by man-made infrastructure.
There are also many regional monitoring networks available online. Ask your local extension professionals about resources that are appropriate for your area. Here in New Hampshire, George Hamilton has made sure to supply local growers with regional trapping data on the most important pests of corn, pumpkins, and small fruit and these numbers are updated on the extension website weekly.
Now this is really important – all of these online resources can be really helpful but they should all be taken with a grain of salt. Weather-based prediction models are helpful in pinpointing the time at which a pest insect might be most susceptible or when risk factors for disease are the highest. However, they do not tell you how severe your pest pressure is on your farm. Your management practices or the habitat surrounding your farm can lead to very different situations from the farm down the road. So for many pests, scouting and trapping and record keeping from year to year can be really important. Get into it!
That’s it for this episode. Thanks to my colleagues for helping me out with my little project – you’ll be hearing more from them in later episodes. And a very special thank you to Brentwood’s favorite son, Jason Lightbown who wrote and performed our theme music.
End credits: 'Over-informed on IPM' is a production of University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, an equal opportunity educator and employer. All music is used by permission or by Creative Commons licensing. Views and opinions expressed on this podcast are not necessarily those of the University, its trustees or its volunteers. Inclusion or exclusion of commercial enterprises in this podcast does not equate endorsement. The University of New Hampshire, New Hampshire counties and the U.S. Department of Agriculture cooperate to provide Extension programming in the Granite State. Learn more at Extension.unh.edu.
