Posts Tagged: IPM
California drought may be causing shifts in pest invasion behavior
The drought may be driving more invasions by annoying insects such as ants, but not necessarily for the reasons one might expect.
Many people are asking, “Why are there so many more pests this year than usual?”
People may just be seeing more pests, according to an urban integrated pest management (IPM) advisor with UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
“The overall abundance of pests probably hasn't changed and may even have decreased as compared to wet years,” said Andrew Sutherland, Ph.D., urban IPM advisor for the San Francisco Bay Area. “The real questions we should be asking are ‘Why are these pests appearing earlier in the year?' and ‘Why are the pests appearing all at once as opposed to throughout the year?'”
“This is also the first year we've seen dramatic changes made by residents due to mandated water-use restrictions,” Sutherland said. “Areas with frequent irrigation and lush landscapes aren't available this year so nuisance pests like outdoor cockroaches, ants and crickets are migrating from dry areas to seek moisture.”
This search may lead the thirsty pests to homes, garages or landscape that they haven't visited before. The IPM advisor used oriental cockroaches as an example.
“Oriental cockroaches are highly dependent on moisture and humidity and are not normally found indoors,” said Sutherland. “Outdoors, if you have an irrigation control box, leaky hosebib or water meter box, or a French drain system, that's where you'll find them. But if this water supply has been reduced or shut off, this population you didn't even know of – that may have existed for years – may crawl under doors or into foundation cracks and move indoors in search of water.”
To learn more about home, garden, turf and landscape pests and how to exclude them, visit the UC Integrated Pest Management website at http://www.ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/menu.house.html. For more advice on pest problems, contact the UC Master Gardeners at a local UC Cooperative Extension office http://ucanr.edu/County_Offices.
Further reading
Cockroaches http://www.ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7467.html?src=blog18995
Ants http://www.ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/invertebrates/links.ants.html?src=blog18995
Rodents http://www.ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/menu.house.html#VERT?src=blog18995
UC Master Gardeners http://mg.ucanr.edu/Become_a_Master_Gardener/Counties/?src=blog18995
Excluding seasonal nuisance pests http://www.ipm.ucanr.edu/PDF/PUBS/greenbulletin.2012.feb.pdf?src=blog18995
Jim Farrar named UC IPM director
Jim Farrar has been named director of the Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program for the University of California's Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. He will begin the new position on Oct. 1.
UC IPM works with growers and residents to protect human health and the environment by reducing risks caused by pests and pest management practices.
Farrar is currently director of the Western IPM Center, where he has served since 2013. He succeeds Kassim Al-Khatib, UC IPM director since 2009, who is transitioning to a UC Cooperative Extension specialist position located in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis. There Al-Khatib will focus on his research in weed management.
“UC IPM is a widely recognized national leader in integrated pest management,” Farrar said. “I am excited to continue efforts to make IPM the standard practice for managing pests in agriculture, communities and natural areas in California.”
Prior to joining the Western IPM Center, Farrar was a professor of plant pathology in the Department of Plant Science at California State University, Fresno for 12 years.
At Fresno State, Farrar received three teaching awards. He taught courses in plant pathology, plant nematology, diagnosis and control of plant diseases, crop improvement, aspects of crop productivity, mycology, sustainable agriculture and advanced pest management. His research centered on fungal diseases of vegetable crops, including management strategies for cavity spot of carrot. During his Fresno State tenure, he served four years as chair of the Department of Plant Science and a year as interim chair of the Department of Food Science and Nutrition.
From 1995 to 1997, Farrar taught in the Botany Department at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. At Weber State, he conducted research on rock cress plants infected with a rust fungus that causes false-flowers. This rust is closely related to a species that is a potential biological control agent for dyer's woad (Isatis tinctoris), an invasive weed.
Farrar has published scientific papers, extension newsletter articles, and articles in agricultural industry magazines. He also wrote a chapter in the book Tomato Health Management and five disease descriptions in the book Compendium of Umbelliferous Crop Diseases. He recently completed a three-year term as senior editor for feature articles in the journal Plant Disease and was senior editor for the online journal Plant Health Progress for three years. Farrar is a member of the American Phytopathological Society and the Pacific Division of the American Phytopathological Society.
The Wisconsin native completed his Ph.D. in botany and B.S. in plant pathology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and his M.S. in plant pathology at UC Davis.
MEDIA CONTACT: Jim Farrar, director-elect for UC ANR Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (530) 750-1271, jjfarrar@ucanr.edu
Bee kind to pollinators – Use integrated pest management to reduce pesticide use
The importance of pollinators – such as bees, butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds – is becoming more widely known. Bees pollinate approximately 35 percent of the food we eat. Pollinators as a whole are worth about $15 billion to the agricultural industry.
Honey bees are important, yet they are declining. Besides issues such as habitat loss and disease, pest management methods can also contribute to population loss. Pesticides used to kill insects, plant pathogens and weeds can leave residues that kill bees and other natural enemies. Residues can linger in pollen and nectar, and pollinators moving into an area after an application can be unintentionally harmed. Even some less-toxic materials can be harmful if not applied correctly or if applied at the wrong time.
Growers and home gardeners can find newly updated guidelines for protecting pollinators as well as a list of honey bee resources on the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program website. The UC IPM program, a part of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, works with residents, farmers, land managers, community leaders and other professional pest managers to prevent and solve pest problems with the least unintended impacts on people, beneficial species and their surroundings.
IPM combines several effective pest control methods that are safe for people and the environment with the goal of long-term prevention and management. Many pest problems can be solved without the use of pesticides. Using pest resistant or competitive plants, removing the pests' sources of food and water, knocking pests off plants with a spray of water, deploying traps and blocking pests' entrance to buildings with screens or other barriers are just a few things you can do to reduce a pest problem. IPM reduces the need for pesticides, thus preventing harm to bees.
Pesticides are sometimes necessary in an IPM program, but when used, they should be used in combination with non-chemical methods. There are several key points to keep in mind when applying pesticides:
- Use them sparingly, and only treat areas where pests are problems.
- Choose selective pesticides and ones that won't persist in the environment.
- Time applications so that you are not spraying when bees are active, and avoid spraying during bloom time.
- Be aware of nearby bee colonies, and avoid spraying around healthy bee populations and areas with a lot of nectar-producing plants.
New research looking at pesticide risks to honey bees and new pesticide labels being developed by the EPA that prohibit the use of some pesticides when bees are present are just a couple of efforts being made to protect pollinators. UC IPM is revising its list of pesticides ranked for risk of harm to honey bees in its Pest Management Guidelines (relative toxicities tables). An online searchable database is expected to be published in early fall. This information will eventually be incorporated into the Pest Management Guidelines.
For more information on IPM and on what you can do to protect bees and other pollinators, visit the UC IPM web site.
An initiative to manage endemic and invasive pests and diseases is part of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Strategic Vision 2025.
Author: Cheryl Reynolds
Online course helps control pests, protect children
Pest management professionals can learn about the requirements of California's Healthy Schools Act by taking a free online course provided by the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM), part of University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR).
To minimize children's exposure to pesticides, California requires pest control operators providing services in schools and licensed child care centers to comply with a series of laws called the Healthy Schools Act. The laws promote integrated pest management (IPM) in public K–12 schools and licensed private child care centers.
The free course Providing Integrated Pest Management Services in Schools and Child Care Settings explains what the Healthy Schools Act requires of schools, child care centers and pest control companies when managing pests in these environments.
"Taking the online course makes it easier to understand and comply with the laws," said Andrew Sutherland, UC ANR Cooperative Extension IPM advisor. "Pest management professionals can take the course at their convenience. It tells them everything they need to know about the Healthy Schools Act and IPM in order to do business with a school or child care center."
The course also includes a section on how companies can prosper by incorporating IPM principles and practices into their businesses.
"This is an opportunity for operators to take their businesses to the next level by adopting IPM practices," Sutherland said. "IPM effectively and efficiently manages pests, builds professionalism within providers, and captures value for the customer while minimizing pesticide applications, pesticide exposures and associated negative impacts on children's health, the environment and the larger community."
Licensed pest-management professionals can receive continuing education units by completing the online course: one "Rules and Regulations" and one "IPM" from the Structural Pest Control Board; and one "Laws and Regulations" and one "Other" from the Department of Pesticide Regulation.
UC Berkeley's Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health is developing a database of individuals who complete the course so that schools and child care centers can connect with pest control providers who are familiar with IPM and the Healthy Schools Act.
The training module was developed by Sutherland and collaborators at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco, with input from California pest management professionals and child care providers.
To take the free Providing Integrated Pest Management Services in Schools and Child Care Settings course, see the UC IPM website http://ucanr.edu/ipm4schools.
This project was funded by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation Pest Management Alliance Program. For more information about the Healthy Schools Act, visit the California Department of Pesticide Regulation's School IPM web page http://apps.cdpr.ca.gov/schoolipm.
An initiative to maintain and enhance healthy families and communities is part of the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Strategic Vision 2025.
From superweeds to Pierce’s disease: California Agriculture reports on fighting diseases and pests
An article in the current issue of California Agriculture, the peer-reviewed journal from the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, examines the spread of herbicide-resistant weeds in California and shows how UC researchers and Cooperative Extension specialists are helping growers to understand and manage the factors that drive it.
Five more articles in this special issue of California Agriculture highlight the work of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources on pests and diseases that threaten the state's people, agriculture and natural resources. The commitments to research and outreach profiled in the issue include the Endemic and Invasive Pests Strategic Initiative, the UC Statewide IPM Program and several successful collaborations with regulatory agencies and the agricultural community.
Diagnostics in animal health: How UC helps exclude and minimize impact of livestock pathogens
Whether it's pinkeye, bluetongue or poisonous plants, UC maintains a strong network of laboratories and field experts to protect livestock health in California.
Regional alliances of federal, state and university plant diagnostic labs work together to identify and control disease spread.
Managing newly established pests
Growers, scientists and regulators collaborate on European grapevine moth program
A regulatory program coordinated by government agencies, scientists and growers successfully contained an infestation that threatened California vineyards.
The 1999 arrival in California of a new Pierce's disease vector, the glassy-winged sharpshooter, posed a major new threat to California vineyards and orchards. A 15-year collaborative effort has successfully contained the sharpshooter and led to major improvements in our understanding of the biology of Pierce's disease, including promising advances in the development of disease-resistant grapevine lines.
Maintaining long-term management
Herbicide-resistant weeds challenge some signature cropping systems
Little or no crop rotation and limited herbicide options have contributed to the rise of herbicide-resistant weeds in orchards, vineyards and rice fields.
Over 35 years, integrated pest management has reduced pest risks and pesticide use
The UC Integrated Pest Management Program helps provide management solutions for invasive pests that destabilize IPM programs in agricultural and urban landscapes.
E-edition research article
The cost of the glassy-winged sharpshooter to California grape, citrus and nursery producers
The spread of the invasive insect in the late 1990s led to increased costs and changes in agricultural practices for grape, citrus and nursery producers.
These articles and the entire October-December 2014 issue are available at http://californiaagriculture.ucanr.edu.
California Agriculture is the University of California's peer-reviewed journal of research in agricultural, human and natural resources. For a free subscription, go to http://californiaagriculture.ucanr.edu or write to calag@ucanr.edu.
University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources is the bridge between local issues and the power of UC research. UC ANR's advisors, specialists and faculty bring practical, science-based answers to Californians. Visit ucanr.edu to learn more.