910 likes | 1.17k Views
Core Four Pest Management. USDA-NRCS Cropland Technology Team. Overview. Introduction to Core Four Pest Management Pest Management Policy Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Environmental Risks of Pest Management Implementing the Pest Management Standard Using the Pest Management Jobsheet.
E N D
Core Four Pest Management USDA-NRCS Cropland Technology Team
Overview • Introduction to Core Four Pest Management • Pest Management Policy • Integrated Pest Management (IPM) • Environmental Risks of Pest Management • Implementing the Pest Management Standard • Using the Pest Management Jobsheet Core Four
Other Pest Management Training • A comprehensive NEDC self-paced study course entitled “Nutrient and Pest Management Considerations in a Conservation Management System Plan” • Extension and state agency training in pest management and pesticide applicator safety • Certified Crop Advisor Program Core Four
Introduction to Core Four Pest Management • Pest Management is a critical component of conservation planning • Pest Management must be used in conjunction with: • crop residue management • nutrient management • conservation buffers • other conservation practices Core Four
Core Four Pest Management Goals • The pest management component of a conservation plan should enhance crop quality and quantity + minimize negative impacts to identified resource concerns • IPM should be utilized where it’s available • The conservation plan should be cooperatively developed with whoever makes pesticide recommendations Core Four
NRCS Role In Core Four Pest Management • NRCS’s primary role in pest management is to help producers understand the environmental impacts associated with different pest control options, so they can fully incorporate environmental risk into their pest management decision-making process Core Four
Current Focus • Since pesticide impacts on water quality are a major concern, our emphasis is on: • Management factors that reduce the potential for pesticide movement below the rootzone and beyond the edge of the field (including management of crop, residue/tillage, water and pesticide(s) • Conservation Buffers that reduce pesticide movement beyond the edge of the field Core Four
To get the job done, NRCS must: • Supplement recommendations made by others with environmental risk information • Help producers understand how pest management interrelates with climateand soil, water and crop management, so they can implement strategies to minimize negative impacts on non-target plants, animals and humans Core Four
Stop Core Four
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) • A pest is any organism (plant or animal) judged by people as undesirable • Ecologically speaking, no organism is born a pest; it all depends on human perspective • Pest problems do not arise as independent or isolated events • Crops and pests are part of an agroecosystem Core Four
IPM • Attempts to control one pest species without regard for the overall agroecosystem, can disrupt checks and balances and increase the severity of subsequent pest infestations • IPM depends on a detailed understanding of pest population dynamics Core Four
Agricultural pests include: • Insects and related arthropods: invertebrates such as caterpillars, beetles and mites that cause injury by feeding on plants and animals and by transmitting pathogens • Nematodes: microscopic, multicellular, unsegmented roundworms that parasitize animals and plants (Most nematodes that attack agricultural crops feed on roots) Core Four
Agricultural pests include: • Pathogens: disease-causing bacteria, fungi, viruses and related organisms • Vertebrates: any native or introduced species of vertebrate animal that is a health hazard, general nuisance, or destroys food, fiber, or natural resources Core Four
Agricultural pests include: • Weeds: undesirable plants that reduce crop yield and quality by competing for space, water, and nutrients; weeds also may harbor crop-attacking insects and pathogens Core Four
Integrated Pest Management Defined: • Integrated pest management (IPM) is an approach to pest control that combines biological, cultural and other alternatives to chemical control with the judicious use of pesticides. The objective of IPM is to maintain pest levels below economically damaging levels while minimizing harmful effects of pest control on human health and environmental resources Core Four
IPM Theory Core Four
IPM Today Core Four
IPM • Integrated means that a broad interdisciplinary approach is taken using scientific principles of plant protection to bring together a variety of management tactics into an overall strategy • IPM strives for maximum use of naturally occurring control forces including weather, pest diseases, predators, and parasites Core Four
IPM • With IPM, the role for chemical pesticides is one of last resort if other alternatives fail to correct the problem • Pesticides are not applied according to a preset schedule: they only are used if close inspection shows they are needed to prevent severe damage Core Four
IPM • Management is the decision making process to reduce pest status in a planned, systematic way by keeping their numbers below economically acceptable levels • The essence of IPM is decision-making: determining IF, WHEN, WHERE and WHAT mix of control methods are needed Core Four
IPM • IPM attempts to satisfy economic, environmental and social objectives (which sometimes are in conflict with each other) to provide cost-effective pest control that minimizes adverse impacts on human health and the environment Core Four
IPM Tomorrow Core Four
Pest Resistance • Organisms evolve to survive exposure to control measures that worked on earlier generations • In theory, pests can develop resistance to any type of control • In practice, resistance occurs most frequently in response to pesticide use (600 resistant insects, 100 resistant weeds) Core Four
Pest Resistance • In the Midwest, farmers routinely rotate corn with soybeans to break the infestation cycle of the corn rootworm • The corn rootworm has developed strains that overcome crop rotation by extending their overwintering resting stage in the soil from one winter to several winters, so they can attack corn the next time it is planted Core Four
The Resistance Treadmill Core Four
Basic IPM Principles • There is no silver bullet • Over-reliance on any single control measure can have undesirable effects including resistance, resurgence and replacement Core Four
Basic IPM Principles • Tolerate, don't eradicate • Most crops tolerate low pest infestation levels • IPM seeks to reduce pest populations below levels that are economically damaging rather than to totally eliminate infestations Core Four
Basic IPM Principles • Treat the causes of pest outbreaks, not the symptoms • IPM requires a detailed understanding of pest biology and ecology so that the cropping system can be selectively manipulated to the pest's disadvantage Core Four
Basic IPM Principles • If you kill the natural enemies, you inherit their job • Naturally occurring predators, parasites, pathogens, antagonists and competitors help keep many pest populations in check • IPM strives to enhance the impact of beneficials and other natural controls by conserving or augmenting those agents Core Four
Basic IPM Principles • Pesticides are not a substitute for good farming • A vigorously growing plant can better defend itself against pests than a stressed plant • IPM takes maximum advantage of farming practices that promote plant health and allow crops to escape or tolerate pest injury Core Four
Putting IPM philosophy into practice: • Use cultural methods, biological controls, pest-resistant varieties and other alternatives to pesticides • Use scouting and economic thresholds to guide pesticide use decisions • Match pesticides with site characteristics to minimize off-site environmental risks Core Four
Cultural Pest Controls • Crop rotation • Tillage operations that turn the soil and bury crop debris • Altering planting and harvest dates • Altering seeding rates and/or crop spacing • Seedbed preparation, fertilizer application and irrigation that helps the crop to outgrow its pests Core Four
Cultural Pest Controls • Sanitation practices such as cleaning tillage and harvesting equipment • Certified seed that is free of pathogens and weed seed • Cover crops • Trap crops Core Four
Pest-resistant Varieties • Tolerate pest injury without yield loss • Kill pests by producing toxic chemicals • Less attractive to pests Core Four
Biological Controls • Predators • Free-living animals that eat other animals • Usually insects or arthropods, but birds, reptiles and mammals are also used Core Four
Biological Controls • Parasitoids • Insect parasites of other insects • Usually tiny wasps and flies • Parasitoids kill their host Core Four
Biological Controls • Pathogens • Disease causing microorganisms • They include viruses, bacteria, fungi and nematodes Core Four
Scouting & Pest Thresholds • A key principle of IPM is that pesticides should only be used when field examination or scouting shows that infestations exceed economic thresholds • These guidelines differentiate economically insignificant populations from intolerable infestations Core Four
IPM Decision Rules Core Four
Site-Specific Pesticide Selection • The final component of IPM is selection of pesticides that pose the least risk of leaching through soil or being transported from fields in runoff water and sediment or drifting as spray particles on the wind Core Four
USDA National IPM Initiative • USDA, EPA and FDA responded to the President s proposal for reduced pesticide risk by jointly calling for the voluntary goal of implementing IPM methods on 75% of U.S. cropland by the year 2000 • To achieve the 75% adoption goal, the USDA announced on 14 December 1994 its National IPM Initiative Core Four
The IPM Initiative is based on two simple premises: • Involving farmers and other pest control advisors in the development of IPM programs will increase subsequent adoption • IPM benefits everyone: it can reduce environmental risk, improve food safety and increase farmer profitability Core Four
Stop Core Four
Environmental Risks of Pest Management • Chemical control • Risk of pesticides leaving the Agricultural Management Zone (AMZ) in soil, water and air, and negatively impacting non-target plants, animals and humans[AMZ is the top of the crop canopy to the bottom of the rootzone] • Risk of harming beneficial organisms • Risk to personal safety Core Four
Pesticides • Pesticides are defined as "any substance used for controlling, preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest." Core Four
Pesticide Classes and Target Pests • Acaracide - Mites • Fungicide - Fungi • Herbicide - Weeds • Insecticide - Insects • Larvicide - Larvae (usually mosquito) • Miticide - Mites • Nematicide - Nematodes Core Four