Horticulture%20Science%20Lesson%2031%20Understanding%20Integrated%20Pest%20Management

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Horticulture Science Lesson 31Understanding
Integrated Pest Management
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What is integrated pest management?

• Integrated pest management (IPM) is a pest
  management strategy that uses a combination of
  best management practices (BMP) to reduce pest
  damage with the least disruption to the
  environment.
• Best management practices (BMPs) are those
  practices that combine scientific research with
  practical knowledge to optimize production and
  increase crop quality while maintaining
  environmental integrity.

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What is integrated pest management?

• IPM provides protection against hazards to
  humans, domestic animals, plants, and the
  environment.
• Studies have shown that no single control measure
  works consistently over a long period of time.
• A reason for this is that pests can develop
  resistance to certain control measures.

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What is integrated pest management?

• The goal of IPM is to keep pest populations below
  the economic or aesthetic injury level.
• 1. Economic injury level is the point at which
  the cost of pest control equals the revenue loss
  caused by a pest.
• It is determined by estimating the potential
  yield loss, the value of the crop, and the cost
  of treatment.
• Economic injury level also clearly defines how
  much damage can be tolerated.

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What is integrated pest management?

• 2. Economic threshold is the number of insects
  per plant or the amount of damage to the plant
  that economically justifies the use of control
  measures.
• If a control is applied when a pest population
  reaches the economic threshold, the population
  will be suppressed before it reaches the economic
  injury level.

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What is integrated pest management?

• The key to a successful IPM program is scouting,
  which involves regularly monitoring pest
  populations and crop conditions.
• A scout collects data about which pests are
  causing damage, what stage of life each pest is
  in, and whether the pest population is increasing
  or decreasing.

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What is integrated pest management?

• The weakest link in each pests biology must be
  found if management of the pest is to be
  successful.

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What is integrated pest management?

• Benefits of IPM help sustain the ability of the
  earth to meet the needs of an increasing human
  population.
• 1. The benefits to horticulture vary with the
  crop and the extent to which pests interfere with
  economical production.
• Careful planning is required to make effective
  use of IPM.

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What is integrated pest management?

• The benefits of IPM to the horticulture industry
• a. There are reduced pesticide costs in
  addition to fewer pesticides used with IPM.
• b. Application costs are reduced due to time,
  and the cost of labor for pesticide application
  is reduced.
• c. Less pesticide resistance develops within
  populations of insects, weeds, and diseases.

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What is integrated pest management?

• 2. IPM also benefits the environment, which is
  made more sustainable and friendly to people.
• Benefits of IPM to the environment
• a. Reduced contamination and degradation of the
  environment occurs through the use of IPM.
• Pesticide residues do not build up in soil,
  water, and other natural resources.
• b. Cancer-causing residues are present in
  smaller amounts or are not on food at all.
• Less pesticide residue on food products means a
  decreased chance of people ingesting pesticides.

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How are the types of pests identified and
described?

• An understanding of the major pest groups and
  their biology is required to ensure success in
  reducing crop losses due to pests.
• A pest is a living organism that can cause injury
  or loss to a plant.

• Pests include insects, diseases, weeds, mites,
  nematodes parasites, and animals.

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How are the types of pests identified and
described?

• Insects are a group of animals with an
  exoskeleton and three body parts.
• Most insects have six legs and four wings.
• More than 800,000 kinds of insects have been
  identified.
• Insects are capable of producing large numbers of
  offspring in a short time and can cause
  economical loss by feeding on horticultural
  crops.

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How are the types of pests identified and
described?

• 1. Insects have either chewing or sucking
  mouthparts.
• Damage symptoms caused by chewing insects are
  leaf defoliation, leaf mining, stem boring, and
  root feeding.
• Insects with sucking mouthparts produce distorted
  plant growth, leaf stippling, and leaf burn.

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How are the types of pests identified and
described?
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How are the types of pests identified and
described?

• A plant disease is defined as a disturbance to
  the normal growth and development of a plant.
• Diseases are generally classified as being
  infectious or noninfectious.
• Infectious diseases are caused by living
  organisms such as bacteria, fungi, or virus,
  which are often referred to as disease pathogens.
  
• An infectious disease can be spread to other
  plants.

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How are the types of pests identified and
described?

• Noninfectious diseases are caused by
  environmental imbalances and cannot be spread to
  other plants.
• Noninfectious disease examples include over
  watering, nutrient deficiencies, and air
  pollution damage.
• Plants are most susceptible to disease when they
  are under some type of stress.
• The stress is usually associated with
  environmental factors.

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How are the types of pests identified and
described?

• 1. The occurrence and severity of infectious
  plant diseases is based on three factors.
• A susceptible plant or host must be present.
• The causal agent or organism that produces a
  disease must be present.
• Environmental conditions conducive to the causal
  agent must occur.
• The relationship of these three factors is known
  as the disease triangle.
• Disease control programs are designed to affect
  each or all of these factors.

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How are the types of pests identified and
described?
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How are the types of pests identified and
described?

• 2. Fungi are a principal cause of plant disease.
  
• Fungi are organisms that lack chlorophyll.
• They absorb nutrients from living or dead
  organisms.
• Their bodies consist of threadlike vegetative
  structures known as hyphae.
• When hyphae are grouped together, they are called
  mycelium.
• Fungi can reproduce and cause disease by
  producing spores or mycelia.
• The fungus can produce spores asexually or
  sexually.

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How are the types of pests identified and
described?

• 3. Bacteria are one-celled or unicellular
  microscopic organisms.
• Bacteria can enter a plant only through wounds or
  natural openings.

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How are the types of pests identified and
described?

• 4. Viruses are composed of nucleic acids
  surrounded by protein sheaths.
• They are capable of altering a plants metabolism
  by affecting protein synthesis.
• Plant viruses are transmitted by seeds, insects,
  nematodes, fungi, and mechanical means.
• Viral diseases produce several symptoms including
  ring spots, stunting, malformations, and mosaics.
  
• A mosaic symptom is a leaf pattern of light and
  dark green color.

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How are the types of pests identified and
described?

• Weeds are plants that are undesirable and are
  often considered out of place.
• Weeds compete for space, nutrients, water, and
  light that the crop plants need to grow.
• They also harbor insect pests.
• Weed life cycles are annuals, biennials, and
  perennials.
• They are also classified as broadleaf or grass
  weeds.

1. An annual weed is a plant that completes its
life cycle within one growing season.
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How are the types of pests identified and
described?

• 2. A biennial weed is a plant that will live for
  two growing seasons.
• Vegetative growth occurs in the first year where
  the plant produces leaf, stems, and root tissue.
• During the second year, the plant flowers and
  produces seeds.
• 3. A perennial weed can live for more than two
  growing seasons and may reproduce by seed and/or
  vegetative growth.

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How are the types of pests identified and
described?

• 4. Broadleaf weeds have a broad leaf associated
  with dicot plants.
• Examples are dandelions, ground ivy, plantain,
  and spurge.
• 5. Grass weeds include monocots such as
  crabgrass, nimblewill, and quackgrass.

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How are the types of pests identified and
described?

• Plants suffer from a variety of other pests
  including mites, nematodes, parasitic plants, and
  animals.
• 1. Mites are small organisms with an
  exoskeleton, two body parts, and eight legs.
• 2. Nematodes are tiny hair-like roundworms that
  feed on the root of plants.
• They may live in the soil or water, within
  insects, or as parasites of plants or animal

• Nematodes are quite small and produce damage to
  plants by feeding on roots, stems, or leaf tissue.

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How are the types of pests identified and
described?

• 3. Some plants, such as dodder and mistletoe,
  are parasitic.
• Parasitic plants extract water and nutrients from
  other plants and give nothing in return.
• 4. Animals including deer, mice, rabbits, and
  voles cause severe physical damage to plants,
  which often causes plant death.

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What are the basic elements of an integrated pest
management program?

• For successful management of pests, the IPM
  program must be a year-round program.
• Also, IPM control measures for a specific crop,
  poinsettias for example, should begin before the
  plants enter the greenhouse.
• The strength of IPM is the combination of control
  measures used.
• Four broad areas of control include sanitation,
  cultural/physical control, biological control,
  and chemical control.

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What are the basic elements of an integrated pest
management program?

• Many pest problems can be greatly reduced, if not
  eliminated, with sanitation.
• Sanitation is simply the effort made to keep a
  greenhouse or garden clean.
• Many insects and diseases can be found in plant
  debris.
• Sanitation involves the removal of weeds from the
  immediate area around crops.

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What are the basic elements of an integrated pest
management program?

• Cultural/physical control methods are those
  methods that physically prevent activities of
  pests.
• Used alone they probably will not provide
  complete control of pests and reduce certain
  problems.
• Cultural/physical controls are also safe to
  humans and relatively easy to implement.
• 1. Stop the introduction of pests to the
  greenhouse when possible.
• 2. Remove and destroy heavily infested and
  diseased plants.

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What are the basic elements of an integrated pest
management program?

• 3. Maintain optimal cultural requirements for
  each crop (growing medium, watering, fertility,
  temperatures, etc.) to promote healthy growth.
• 4. Fungal diseases can be reduced by providing
  good air circulation around the plants.

5. The yellow sticky traps used as monitoring
tools also serve as a means of physical control.
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What are the basic elements of an integrated pest
management program?

• Biological controls involve the use of living
  organisms to control pests.
• They maybe microbial organisms, parasitic
  organisms, or predators.
• Biological control organisms for greenhouse use
  are found in nature and are considered
  environmentally safe.
• 1. A bacterium, Bacillus thurengiensis,
  effectively controls caterpillars.
• Aphids and whitefly can be controlled to an
  extent by species of bacteria and fungi.
• The bacteria and fungi are natural diseases of
  those insects.

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What are the basic elements of an integrated pest
management program?

• 2. Parasitic organisms help to control some
  pests.
• The parasites are natural enemies of the pest and
  live off the pest organism.
• An example is a tiny parasitic wasp that lays its
  eggs on the whitefly larva that feeds on plant
  leaves.
• The eggs hatch with the wasp larva inside the
  whitefly larva.
• The wasp larva proceeds to eat the whitefly
  larva.
• The wasp matures, emerges from what is left of
  the whitefly, mates, and looks for whitefly larva
  on which to lie the next generation of eggs.

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What are the basic elements of an integrated pest
management program?

• 3. Predatory organisms can be released to devour
  certain plant pests.
• A beetle attacks whitefly larva and adults.
• A mite is used to control thrips.
• Ladybugs eat aphids.
• As with parasitic organisms, chemical pesticides
  should not be used with predatory organisms.
• Also, predatory and parasitic organisms should be
  released when pest populations are small.

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What are the basic elements of an integrated pest
management program?

• The use of chemicals to control pests and
  diseases is chemical control.
• The chemicals used are called pesticides.
• Although once used almost exclusively, control of
  pests with the use of pesticides is now viewed as
  only one component of an IPM program.
• In fact, use of chemical pesticides is now often
  done only when absolutely necessary.
• Application of pesticides must be done safely to
  reduce potential injury to people and the
  environment.