Ecologically Based Pest Management New Solutions for a New Century (1996) / Chapter Skim
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2 DEFINING AND IMPLEMENTING ECOLOGICALLY BASED PEST MANAGEMENT
2 DEFINING AND IMPLEMENTING ECOLOGICALLY BASED PEST MANAGEMENT
Pages 42-68
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From page 42... ...
Agricultural practices that augment natural processes that suppress pests, where available, will replace existing practices that disrupt natural processes; and these practices will be supplemented with the judicious use of biological-control organisms and products, target-specific chemical pesticides, and pest-resistant plants. It will also be necessary to reopen and develop channels of communication at all levels that increase the flow of information and cooperative action, subsequently lowering risk to users, fostering interdisciplinary interaction, and improving the profitability of alternative pest-control methods.
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From page 43... ...
Ecologically based management relies on a comprehensive knowledge of the ecosystem, including the natural biological interactions that suppress pest populations. It is based on the recognition that many conventional agricultural practices disrupt natural processes that suppress pests.
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From page 44... ...
Biological and ecological processes are fundamental to pest control even in the most intensively managed ecosystems; EBPM builds on and supplements them, rather than impeding or replacing them. SUPPLEMENTS TO NATURAL PROCESSES A major premise of EBPM is that most potential pest species are held in check by naturally occurring beneficial organisms.
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From page 45... ...
. Because cover crops increase ecosys tem biodiversity which, in turn, affects multiple biological interactions involving pest management, soil fertility, and plant nutrition, ecosystem interactions should be carefully considered when integrating a cover crop into a pest-management strat egy.
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From page 46... ...
Biological control organisms commonly interacting with their hosts at low population densities, preventing pests from reproducing to economically important population levels. Control organisms are themselves arthropods, plants, and pathogens and are as diverse as the pests (Ferris, 1992; Flint, 1992; Schroth et al., 1992; Turner, 1992)
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From page 47... ...
Indeed, certain synthetic products can be less detrimental to environmental balances than some products derived from organisms; some natural plant products used to formulate botanical insecticides such as rotenone and pyrethrum have broad-spectrum activity and can be highly toxic to beneficial organisms. It is the spectrum and activity of products used in ecologically based pest management that are of primary importance rather than the source of the products.
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From page 48... ...
Race-specific resistance genes deployed in this manner can be quite successful in controlling plant diseases. Plants also may have a general resistance to plant pests, conferred by the collective action of multiple genes.
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From page 49... ...
Management systems that effectively suppress pest populations but suffer from poor profits, high risks, discouragement by public policy, or lack of available information for the grower will not be implemented. The economic feasibility of pest management must be determined by examining the economic factors a grower might consider when considering adoption of EBPM strategies.
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From page 50... ...
Biological Control of Arthropods Augmentation of Existing Control Organisms In California, the California red scale (Aonidiella aurantii) , one of the primary citrus pests, is now controlled by augmenting populations of Aphytis lingnan ensis -- a parasitoid of the red scale.
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From page 51... ...
Classical Biological Control The most famous use of an exotic biological-control organism to achieve per manent control of an arthropod pest of exotic origin is the control of the cottony cushion scale, Icerya purchasi, that threatened the continued existence of the California citrus industry in the late 1800s. The predaceous Vedalia beetle, Rodolia cardinalis, was introduced into California citrus groves in 1889.
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From page 52... ...
This is an advantage in many cases -- classical biological control using organisms is preventative rather than therapeutic. Technical efficacy of an ecologically based management system refers to the ability of the system to prevent or reduce damage caused by pest populations.
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From page 53... ...
Growers will, in general, be more willing to invest in alternative pest control systems when the value per hectare of the crop they are producing is large. Ecologically based management systems that solve pest problems that cannot be solved with current systems will be immediately attractive to growers, particularly if the cost of current pest damage is high.
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From page 54... ...
The potential of ecologically based management systems may depend as much on how well they meet the economic criteria of those who use them, as on their direct effect on pest populations. Economic Feasibility and Risk Risk plays a large role in a grower's decision to adopt a new pest-management system.
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From page 55... ...
Economic feasibility and risk can create both barriers to or opportunities for the implementation of ecologically based management systems. A national initiative to develop and implement ecologically based systems should focus on those strategic opportunities where the economic feasibility and risk characteristics increase the likelihood of eventual adoption and implementation by growers.
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From page 56... ...
The public at large has an opportunity to invest in new knowledge and tools that will help the grower successfully implement ecologically based pest-management systems. THE ROLE OF INFORMATION IN PEST MANAGEMENT The complexity of managed ecosystems indicates a need for more multidisciplinary information to develop and implement EBPM.
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From page 57... ...
Biological Control Frost injury on a variety of agricultural plants and fire blight of pear and apple can be suppressed by BlightBan®, a product composed of the bacterial-control agent Pseudomonas fluorescens A506. After even a single application of Blight Ban, large populations of P
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From page 58... ...
. FIGURE 2-1 The information web of ecologically based pest management.
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From page 59... ...
These end users are referred to collectively as pest managers. Delivery of information to this group is crucial to changing from current chemically based pest management to ecologically based strategies.
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From page 60... ...
Future pest managers may rely on computer based tools for greater efficiency and precision in decision making. More information on production system management is not only needed, it needs to be very accessible.
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From page 61... ...
The current infrastructure will have to be retooled and strengthened to meet the knowledge needs for ecologically based pest management. Historically, extension agents focused predominantly on recommendations for using pesticides, because of the large quantity of information available, the generally high degree of efficacy of the products, the ease of use of pesticides, rapid changes in pesticide use technology, and changes in pesticide use regulations.
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From page 62... ...
Pest-management methods that are effective, economically practical, long lasting, and not damaging to human health and the environment will require knowledge for effective implementation. As pest management becomes more biologically based, it is likely to become more knowledge intensive; this increased complexity will likely generate an increased demand for private consultants who can sell their knowledge about pest control to growers and others who manage pests.
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From page 63... ...
unfunded graduate programs could not compete with research programs providing stipends or assistantships to students, and (3) these programs may simply have been ahead of their time, coming during a period of relatively simplistic approaches to pest management that did not require practical knowledge needed by future practitioners of EBPM.
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From page 64... ...
Pest resistance to broadspectrum, chemical pesticides is a recurring problem. Resistance to Bt, a microbial pesticide derived from Bacillus thuringiensis has also been observed in certain arthropod pests (Gould, 1991; National Audubon Society, 1991)
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From page 65... ...
They have nearly perfected ecologically based management; as a result their pest-management costs are the lowest of any district in California and their fruit quality and quantity among the highest. Between 1971 and 1980, the mean annual cost of pest management in the Fillmore District was only $72 per hectare.
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From page 66... ...
The importance of monitoring pest populations in individual fields is critical to the accurate assessment of tactics aimed at delaying pest resistance to biological control. Ensuring the durability of biological-control organisms, products, or resistant plants in the agroecosystem must be managed through collective action.
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From page 67... ...
This program resulted in the reduction in use of syn thetic chemical insecticides in Sinaloa from 22,000 pounds in 1986–1987 to 0 pounds by 1992–1993, at a savings to growers of approximately $76 per acre. In summary, through the adoption of effective monitoring techniques and the use of various EBPM practices, ranging from field sanitation to biological control, Campbell Soup Company has been able to increase yields, maintain quality, re duce pesticide use and detectable residues, and save its growers more than $1 million in pest-management inputs.
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From page 68... ...
68 ECOLOGICALLY BASED PEST MANAGEMENT valuable biological-control organisms and products. Efforts to do this can be coordinated by industry, perhaps modelled on such organizations as the fungicide resistance working group, which is dedicated towards developing practices and implementation recommendations to enhance the long-term use of fungicides.
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