Pest Management Notes

Defining Pests

  • A pest is any undesirable organism that injures: humans, desirable plants/animals, manufactured products, or natural substances.

Four Main Groups of Pests

  • Weeds: Plants with people problems (compete with crops, obstruct roadways, etc.)
  • Invertebrate Pests: Insects (aphids, caterpillars, wasps), spiders, mites, ticks, slugs, snails
  • Vertebrate Pests: Animals with backbones (birds, snakes, fish, rodents, mammals)
  • Plant Diseases: Caused by pathogens (fungi, bacteria, viruses, nematodes) or non-living agents (temperature extremes, air pollution)

Importance of Pest Identification

  • Critical for effective pest control.
  • Misidentification wastes time, effort, and money.
  • May harm beneficial organisms (e.g., killing ladybugs that eat aphids).

General Pest Management Methods

  • Biological: Involves the use of natural enemies such as predators, parasites, and pathogens to control pests. This method aims to reduce pest populations by leveraging natural ecological interactions.
  • Chemical: The use of pesticides to manage pest populations. This can include insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and other chemical agents designed to kill or repel pests.
  • Cultural: Modifying agricultural practices to make the environment less favorable for pests. This can include crop rotation, sanitation, and changes in irrigation practices.
  • Genetic: Using genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that are resistant to certain pests. This reduces the need for pesticide applications.
  • Mechanical/Physical: Using physical barriers or mechanical means to control pests. This includes traps, fences, and manual removal of pests.
  • Regulatory: Implementing laws and regulations to prevent the introduction and spread of pests. This includes quarantines and inspections.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

  • Definition: A multi-strategy approach to pest control.
  • Goal: Prevent pests from reaching economically or aesthetically damaging levels with minimal environmental risk.

Benefits of IPM

  • Promotes a healthy environment.
  • Saves money over time.
  • Reflects care and concern for the environment and others.

Improving Pest Control

  • Using one or more control options in combination.

Selectivity and Persistence of Chemical Controls

  • Selectivity: Range of pest species targeted (selective vs. non-selective).
  • Persistence: How long a pesticide remains in the environment.

Pest Population Levels and Control Procedures

  • Economic Threshold: Population density requiring control measures to prevent reaching the Economic Injury Level.
  • Economic Injury Level: Pest density causing losses equal to the cost of control measures.
  • Set Economic Threshold below Economic Injury Level.

Prevention vs. Suppression

  • Prevention: Methods to prevent pest establishment.
  • Suppression: Measures to reduce existing pest populations.
  • Eradication: Total elimination (difficult, costly).

Reasons for Pesticide Application Failure

  • Incorrect pest identification.
  • Incorrect dosage.
  • Incorrect pesticide use.
  • Wrong application equipment or miscalibration
  • Wrong environmental conditions
  • Pesticides stored too long

Pesticide Mode of Action

  • Importance in managing pesticide resistance.
  • Systemic: Pesticide moves through plant/animal tissues.
  • Contact: Direct contact with the pest is required.

Tactics to Minimize Pesticide Resistance

  • Rotate pesticides with different modes of action.
  • Reduce dosage or limit application area.

Historical Context of Pest Control

  • Early methods: Hand-pulling weeds, clubbing rats, hand-plucking insects.
  • Early chemical use: Sulfur burning, lead arsenate (1892).
  • Pre-1940s: Chemicals derived from plants.
  • Post-WWII: Modern synthetic pesticides (DDT).

DDT and Chlorinated Hydrocarbons

  • DDT: Nobel Prize winner for controlling mosquito-borne diseases.
  • Chlorinated hydrocarbons (DDT, Chlordane): Environmental concerns due to persistence.
  • Chlordane: Legal to produce in the US for foreign export only.

Weed Life Cycles

  • Annuals: Complete life cycle in one year (winter vs. summer annuals).
  • Biennials: Complete life cycle in two years (e.g., burdock, parsley).
  • Perennials: Live for many growing seasons (e.g., dandelions, lawn grasses).

Invertebrate Pests

  • Insects (6 legs) vs. Arachnids (8 legs).
  • Importance of knowing invertebrate life cycles.

Insect Metamorphosis

  • No Metamorphosis: Immatures (pronymphs) look like miniature adults (e.g., silverfish).
  • Gradual Metamorphosis: Nymphs resemble adults (e.g., cockroaches).
  • Complete Metamorphosis: Egg, larva, pupa, adult (e.g., moths, butterflies).

Vertebrate Pests

  • Animals with a backbone: birds, snakes, fish, rodents, mammals.

Plant Diseases

  • Caused by pathogens (living agents) or non-living agents.
  • Pathogens: fungi, bacteria, viruses, nematodes, phytoplasmas.
  • Non-living Agents: temperature extremes, air pollution, nutrient imbalances.
  • Viruses: Non-living, encapsulated genetic material (RNA or DNA).

Applied Controls

  • Biological: Using natural enemies (predators, parasites, pathogens).
  • Mechanical/Physical: Traps, fences, screens, mowers, cultivation, altering environmental conditions.
    *Electrofishing: Using electricity to catch fish for rapid depopulation.
  • Cultural: Practices to reduce pest establishment (mowing, mulching, irrigating, aerating, sanitizing).
  • Genetic: Genetically modified plants, adapted varieties.
  • Regulatory: Quarantines, eradication programs.

Cultural Control Practices Quote

  • "If you want a smooth roll of your golf ball 95% of the year, you need to be faithful with these cultural practices 5% of the year."

Mulching, irrigation, Aeration, Fertilization, Cultivation, Sanitation

Economic Threshold and Injury Level

  • Economic Threshold: Population density requiring control measures to prevent reaching the Economic Injury Level.
  • Economic Injury Level: Pest density causing losses equal to the cost of control measures.
  • Set Economic Threshold below Economic Injury Level.

IPM Goals

  • Prevention: Preventing pest establishment.
  • Suppression: Reducing pest populations.
  • Eradication: Total elimination (costly, difficult).

IPM Decision-Making Process

  • Pest identification and understanding.
  • Monitoring pest populations.
  • Setting management goals.
  • Selecting control tactics (timing, economics, environment, regulations).
  • Evaluating the process and recording findings.

Pesticides

  • Definition: Material applied to kill, attract, repel, regulate pests.
  • Includes: disinfectants, fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, repellents, desiccants.

Types of Pesticides

  • Fungicides: Manage fungi.
  • Herbicides: Manage weeds.
  • Insecticides: Manage insects.
  • Miticides: Control mites (arachnids).
  • Rodenticides: Control rodents.
  • Nematicides: Control nematodes.

Pesticide Mode of Action

  • Systemic: Moves through plant/animal tissues.
  • Contact: Direct contact with the pest is required.

Pesticide Selectivity

  • Non-selective: Affects all related organisms (e.g., glyphosate).
  • Selective: Kills a small group of related organisms (e.g., 2,4-D).

Pesticide Persistence

  • How long a pesticide remains in the environment.
  • Persistent (residual) vs. Non-residual.
    * ## Types of Fungicides
  • Protectants: Protect turf grasses from a fungus.
  • Erratics: Fight back a fungal problem that's already established itself.

Reasons for Pesticide Application Failure

  • Incorrectly identified pest
  • Incorrect dosage
  • Incorrect pesticide use
  • Application timing
  • Application equipment
  • Wrong environmental conditions
  • Pesticides stored too long

Pest Definitions

  • Key Pests: Cause major damage regularly (e.g., roaches, rodents).
  • Secondary Pests: Become a problem after key pests are controlled.
  • Occasional Pests: Problems due to environmental changes.

Pesticide Resistance

  • Pest's ability to tolerate a pesticide that once controlled it.
  • Caused by repeated use of the same chemical class of pesticides.

Managing Pesticide Resistance

  • Rotate pesticides with different modes of action.
  • Reduce dosage or limit application area.

See out local extension agent or your pesticide distributor for assistance with this matter.

Importance of Rotating Pesticides

  • This helps to minimize resistance development to the pesticides you are using on a particular pest