IPM

Question 1

What are the main steps in IPM approaches ?

Answer 1

1. Prevention of damage
2. Identification & monitoring of pest populations
3. Evaluation of success, possible improvement
4. Interventional control measures
5. Decision making

Question 2

IPM pyramid ?

Answer 2

Aim: Reduction of chemical control to an absolute minimum.

Question 3

Why do we need IPM?

Answer 3

• lethal and sub-lethal effects of insecticides on non-target insects or organisms.
• poisoning of natural enemies of crop pests (predatory insects and parasitoids).
• negative effects of pesticides on water and soil organisms.
• negative effects cascade through the food chain and affect higher
  trophic levels (e.g. birds) i.e stability of ecosystems at risk
• long retention times of pesticides in the environment
• health risks for consumers
• risk of poisoning for agricultural workers
• development of pesticide resistance in insect pests

Question 4

Control techniques / management categories ?

Answer 4

1. Cultural
2. Physical traps, nets, … scarecrow etc
3. Biological / biotechnical
4. Chemical
5. Genetic

Question 5

what is Cultural control and its techniques ?

Answer 5

Cultural control - modifying the environment to make it less favourable to pest invasion, reproduction and survival; could also be used to improve the habitat for natural enemies (i.e conservation biocontrol)

• typically preventative
  – don’t have to control pest later if they never establish in the first place
• applied ecology
  – requires a good understanding of both pest and crop biology, ecology,
  and phenology
• often familiar to the farmer, inexpensive and simple
• be careful: mostly specific to pest species, the crop and the region

Question 6

Cultural control techniques for pest management in IPM systems ?

Answer 6

Question 7

Criteria’s for Site selection ?

Answer 7

• Select a site that is (relatively) pest free
• Select a crop variety suited to the field conditions
  1. Try to avoid sites with significant pest history
• if unavoidable, plant crops that are suited to the pest problem
  2. Crops poorly adopted to abiotic field conditions (soil type, water
  availability, etc.) will be stressed and more susceptible to pests
• can turn a minor pest problem into a more serious one
  3. Monitor/assess site before growing season
• identify pests that are already in the system

Question 8

Aim for crop site selection and the factors to consider ?

Answer 8

Aim: Optimal development and health of plants, minimises the
infestation risk for pests and diseases

Factors to consider
* soil type and climatic conditions
* topography (slopes have a higher risk of soil erosion and
reduced water retention)
* exposition (northern vs. southern slope)
* high humidity increases risk of infection by plant pathogens
* ‘crop isolation‘ (fewer pests flying in; e.g. aphids as virus vectors)

Arable cropping systems and the crops planted must be selected in accordance with local soil and climate conditions

Question 9

Define Sanitation ? and how to control.

Answer 9

Sanitation can be described as the techniques to avoid / reduce potential sources of pest infestation.

• Most common steps :
  – the destruction of crop residues by chopping and ploughing (singly or in combination)
  – removal of fallen fruit and destruction of tree prunings in orchards
  – use pest-free seeds, tubers or transplants
  – clean equipment before moving to a different site
  – remove and destroy overwintering and breeding sites

Question 10

Sanitation– horse chestnut leaf miner ?

Answer 10

Question 11

Sanitation Strawberries ?

Answer 11

Strawberries - removal of infected/infested old fruit and plant
material

minimizes Botrytis fruit rot, leather rot, mucor rot, and Rhizopus fruit rot and is also important in managing spotted-wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii).

Question 12

Sanitation – spotted wing drosophila

Answer 12

Drosophila suzukii
Family Drosophilidae – fruit/vinegar flies.

invasive pest
Damage:
- lays eggs into healthy fruits
- larvae develop very fast within fruit
(fruits get bad quickly)

Question 13

Sanitation – spotted wing drosophila life cycle ?

Answer 13

Question 14

Sanitation – spotted wing drosophila Management ?

Answer 14

Management:
- monitoring traps
- crop netting (requires very fine mesh size)
- low levels of humidity in the orchard
- harvesting in short time intervals
- removing of infested fruits/fallen fruits &
solarization: enclose the fruits for 10 to 15 days in plastic bags and expose these to the sun
- mass trapping:
50 % water
40 % cider vinegar
10 % red wine
0.05 % acetone
2 drops of soap (odourless)
- no harvest allowed for 7 days after insecticide application due to the risk of pesticides residues on the fruits

Question 15

Sanitation – potato cyst nematodes ?

Answer 15

Globodera rostochiensis and G. pallida.

Biology & damage:
- females die after mating
their bodies develops into a cyst that contains up to 600 eggs
- PCN populations can multiply by the
factor 80 from one generation to the next!
- root exudates from host plants (e.g. potato) trigger hatching of larvae
- cysts can remain viable for up to 20 years
- stunted growth, yellowing crops  yield loss of 30% - 80%

Question 16

Sanitation – potato cyst nematodes: avoid soil contamination ? management ?

Answer 16

Avoid soil contamination:
Globodera rostochiensis and G. pallida.

Management:
- monitoring  soil testing services
- certified disease free seed tubers
- avoid spread through contaminated soil
 avoid wind erosion
 working sequence: infected sites last
 cleaning of tools
 no disposal of soil residues on fields
- management of volunteer potatoes
- management of solanaceous weeds
- crop rotation: cultivation break of three years
- resistant varieties
- (nematicides)

Question 17

Sanitation – grass flies: destruction of alternative hosts ?

Answer 17

Oscinella frit - frit fly
Chlorops pumilionis - barley gout fly
Delia coarctata - wheat bulb fly.

Biology & damage:
- larvae are stem borers in cereal crops
- feed on central shoot
‘deadheart’ symptom (central shoot turning yellow)
- overwinter in couch grass (Elymus repens) and other grasses
Management:
- use varieties with good tillering properties
- remove couch grass

Question 18

Sanitation - Destruction of any potential host.
Anoplophora glabripennis- Asian long-horned beetle

Answer 18

Anoplophora glabripennis- Asian long-horned beetle
(ALB) quarantine pest  needs to be reported
Damage:
* Can attack all living deciduous
trees including fruit trees
* Preference for maple and poplar
* Several generations within 1 tree
- L1 feeds on phloem
- L3 on hardwood
 kills tree

Management:
* Affected tree and other suitable
host trees within a 100 m
perimeter have to be felled,
chaffed and burned.
* Monitoring (1-2 km perimeter)
needs to continue until pest is
eradicated

Question 19

Define Soil tillage? and its benefits

Answer 19

Tillage is mechanical modification of soil structure.

• Benefits
• get an appropriate seedbed
• weed and pest control
• incorporation and mixing of
  plant residues, fertilizer etc.
• break-up compactions, soil-crusts

Question 20

Intense / Conventional Tillage ? primary ?

Answer 20

Question 21

Intense / Conventional Tillage? Secondary ?

Answer 21

Question 22

3 different tillage systems?

Answer 22

Question 23

Tillage systems definitions ?

Answer 23

• Intense / conventional tillage
   typically involves a primary round with a heavy tillage tool to loosen the
  soil and incorporate materials at the surface, followed by one or more
  secondary rounds to create a suitable seedbed
   leaves less than 15% crop residue cover
• Reduced tillage
  – leaves between 15% and 30% residue cover
• Conservation tillage
  – conservation tillage leaves at least 30% of crop residue on the soil
  surface

The amount of crop residue cover affects the soil loss due to erosion.

Question 24

Benefits of conservation tillage ?

Answer 24

1. The amount of crop residue cover affects the soil loss due to erosion.
2. Soil structure affects water infiltration and soil loss due to erosion.
3. Soil structure affects water infiltration and soil loss due to erosion. i.e better water infiltration and lower soil erosion.

Question 25

Conservation tillage ?

Answer 25

* No-till – no tillage at all; aims for 100% ground cover. * Strip-till/zone tillage – narrow strips are tilled where seeds will be planted; the soil in between the rows (about 2/3 of the field) is left untilled. * Rotational tillage – tilling the soil every two years or less often * Ridge-till – planting on ridges which last for several seasons; residues are removed from the ridge and are left on the surface between ridges

Question 26

Conservation tillage - no-till ?

Answer 26

* most extreme change from conventional tillage * no-till system loosens the soil only in the seed zone area * most effective in preventing soil erosion and building organic matter * surface residues also reduce water evaporation

Question 27

Effect of conservational-tillage regime on pests ?

Answer 27

Conservation tillage has several benefits, but several pest species undergo population increases when minimum tillage systems are implemented. eg:

Question 28

Effect of conservational-tillage regime on pests ? 2

Answer 28

* Direct and indirect effects of tillage on levels of pest infestation. species specific effects depending on type as well as timing and frequency of tillage * Pest species that are most sensitive to control by tillage are species that use the soil or crop residues (plant parts, which remain in the field after harvest) as habitat for at least part of their life cycle. – ploughing (inversion tillage), often together with stubble cultivation * suppresses survival or emergence of pests by burying the eggs, larvae or pupae deep into soil * exposing soil pests on the surface  desiccation or predation * examples: European wheat stem sawfly, European corn borer, wheat bulb fly, gall midges, cabbage root fly – reduced tillage * reduces colonization of the crop by pest species which avoid soil surfaces covered with crop residues * examples: cabbage root fly, cabbage stem flea beetle – intensive stubble cultivation with mechanical destruction of pests * reduces the number of soil and belowground pests (generalists) * examples: slugs, wire worms, chockchafer grubs, crane fly larvae

Question 29

What Direct and indirect effects of tillage on levels of pest infestation. species specific effects ?

Answer 29

Pest species that are most sensitive to control by tillage are species that use the soil or crop residues (plant parts, which remain in the field after harvest) as habitat for at least part of their life cycle

Question 30

Effect of tillage regime on pests ?

Answer 30

– ploughing (inversion tillage), often together with stubble cultivation * suppresses survival or emergence of pests by burying the eggs, larvae or pupae deep into soil * exposing soil pests on the surface (desiccation or predation) * examples: European wheat stem sawfly, European corn borer, wheat bulb fly, gall midges, cabbage root fly – reduced tillage * reduces colonization of the crop by pest species which avoid soil surfaces covered with crop residues * examples: cabbage root fly, cabbage stem flea beetle – intensive stubble cultivation with mechanical destruction of pests * reduces the number of soil and belowground pests (generalists) * examples: slugs, wire worms, chockchafer grubs, crane fly larvae

Question 31

Soil tillage - ploughing (inversion tillage), often together with stubble cultivation. Cephus pygmaeus - European wheat stem sawfly

Answer 31

Cephus pygmaeus - European wheat stem sawfly. Family Cephidae - stem sawflies. Biology & Damage: - one generation/year - females lay eggs immediately upon emergence in May/June - eggs inserted into first available internode - only one larva survives due to cannibalism - larvae are stem borers and cause lodging - larvae overwinter in cocoons in cereal stubbles Management: - intensive tillage that buries stubble -“filled” stem varieties of wheat - trap crops such as barley, oat or rye along the field margin (larvae can not complete development)