IPM , Integrated PEST Management , Principles

1. Be Realistic
• It is not practical to strive for a bug -free, weed -
free or disease - free crops.
• Pest control is a process, not an events.
• Most plants can tolerate small pest populations
– Research has shown that vegetable yields are not
affected by foliage losses of up to 20%.

2. IPM Theory
• IPM is posited on the premise that certain
levels of injury from pests are tolerable.
– Without that premise, we are reduced to pest
control (identify and control)
– How then do we determine how much injury is
tolerable?.

4. Why IPM?
• Pesticide overuse /misuse.
• Important to farm profitability.
• High cost of pest impact.
• Export and domestic market demands.
• Human nutritional needs.
• Food safety issues.
• Need for a framework for rational decision-making .

5. What IPM is NOT!
• IPM does NOT preclude the use of
pesticides!
• IPM is NOT merely a biological or
“organic” pest control program.
• IPM is a decision-making process,
NOT a rigid management regime.

6. IPM is not static
• New Pests
• New Races/strains of pests
• Pesticide Resistance
• New control techniques

7. IPM is a continuum,
It is a continuous sequences …….
not an end.
Poor
Fair
Good
Better
Best

8. IPM = Integrated
Pest Management
• IPM is a decision-making process that
considers and utilizes ALL available
pest management options or strategies
to prevent economically-damaging pest
outbreaks below an acceptable, pre-
determined injury level or action
threshold while reducing risks to human
health and the environment

9. IPM is:
A pest management philosophy that utilizes
all suitable pest management techniques
and methods to keep pest populations
below economically injurious levels. Each
pest management technique must be
environmentally sound and compatible with
producer objectives.

10. “A pest management philosophy…..
“
– Recognizes there is no “cure-all” in pest control.
• Dependence on any one pest management method will have
undesirable effects.
– Determine and correct the cause of the pest problem.
• Understanding Pest biology and ecology is essential.
• Manipulate the environment to the crop’s advantage and to the
detriment of the pest.
– Recognizes that eradication of a pest is seldom necessary or
even desirable, and generally not possible.
• Some damage is unavoidable and acceptable

11. The foundation of successful pest management
begins with a comprehensive understanding pest
BIOLOGY & ECOLOGY

14. • Before planning of IPM program we need a
thorough understanding of the crop, pest, and the
environment and their interrelationships :
– Understanding Crop Growth and Development.
– Understanding the Pest.
– Understanding the Pest and Their Life Cycle.
– Understanding the Environment.

15. Understanding Crop Growth and Development
• How do you grow a healthy crop?
• When is the crop most susceptible to
pest damage?
• When is the crop under stress?

16. • Tomato complete a life cycle, from seed to seed,
in one season ( few months ).
• General growth stages of tomato are :
1. Seeds.
2. Seedling stage : usually the period from emerging seed to
transplanting to the field.
3. Vegetative stage : from transplanting until first flower buds develop.
4. Flowering stage : plant with small to full – sized fruits.
5. Fruiting stage : plant with small to full – sized fruits.
6. Harvesting stage : period when plant yields mature fruits.
Plant Growth Stages
( Tomato as case study )

18. • Susceptibility of Growth Stages to Tomato Pests :
– Damage depend also on the variety, and other Ecosystem elements like natural
enemies, weather conditions, fertilizers, water availability and so on.
– Some pests are present throughout the season & can affect tomato at any growth
stage.
– Other pest are only affect the quality or yield at susceptible growth stage.
Economic losses were partly depends on growth stages.
– Pest injury to the older leaves at a late in crop development will not influence the
final yield.
– Tomato crop ( as other crops ) can compensate for a lot of injury by producing
more leaves , new shoots.
– When plants compensate for crop injury without yield or quality losses, there is no
need to implement control practices such as applying pesticides.
INTERVETION
↓
( WASTE OF MONEY, TIME, EFFORTS )

19. Susceptibility of growth stages to tomato pests
growth stage
Pest
seedling vegetative flowering Fruiting Harvesting
Tomato fruit worms
( Heliothes armigera )
Whiteflies
( Bemisia tabaci )
Cutworm
( Agrotis spp )
Leafminer
( Liriomyza sp. )
TMV
( Tobacco Mosaic Virus )
TYLCV
Tomato yellowing Leaf curl virus
Green area : main pest occurrence
Grey area : pest occurs to less extent

20. Understanding the Pest
• Proper ID
• Understanding of Pest Life cycle
– When is it present
– When is it most susceptible to control-
– ”Weak Link”

21. Understanding the Pest and Their Life Cycle
• When is the pest present
• When is it most susceptible to
control-”Weak Link”
• When is too late to control

22. What's wrong?
• Management program given to a farmer by one
of the pesticide retailer suggest to manage
downy mildew in tomato greenhouse as follows
:
– Aeration to reduce RH which promote DM.
– Reduce plant density in GH.
– Never overwatering
– Collect infected leaf in the morning and burn them
outside GH.
– Use Dithane as preventative spraying.
– Use of Prevecure & Alliete .

23. Understanding the Environment
• How does it affect crop growth
–Stress
–Time within susceptible stage
• How it affects pest development
–High mortality
–High survival

24. Greenhouse insects are difficult to manage:
• Multiple generations - up to 20 / year
• Lack of natural enemies to reduce populations
• Almost unlimited food supply
• Constant environmental conditions
• Some life stages are not susceptible to treatment
• Major insecticide and miticides resistance

25. IPM STRATEGY
• Strategy : overall plan to reduce a pest problem.
• Tactic :actual method used to implement the
strategy

26. IPM Strategies
• General IPM Strategy :
– Do Nothing Strategy :
• Is the pest economically/aesthetically significant? Use
sampling and knowledge of economic/aesthetic thresholds to
make a decision; if pest population is below the
Economic/Aesthetic Threshold, then control is not justified.
• Tolerate injury that does not economically justify action.

27. • General IPM Strategy :
– Reduce Pest Numbers Strategy:
• Implement on a treat-as-needed basis when the economic
injury level is reached, or as a preventive tactic based on
history of a pest problem.
• Examples of tactics: pesticides, release of natural
enemies, cultural practices such as cultivation,
sanitation, etc.
• Reduce environmental carrying capacity for pest
population.
• Reduce population's ability to survive or reproduce
• This strategy may involve dampening population
peaks or altering the mean pest density (what is
called the general equilibrium position or GEP).

28. • General IPM Strategy :
– Reduce-crop/host/ecosystem susceptibility:
• Rely on changes made in the host (plant) or ecosystem that
make it less susceptible to the pest (i.e., raise the economic
injury level).
• Examples of tactics: host plant resistance or tolerance,
cultural practices such as fertilization (reduce stress) and
altering the synchrony between pest and susceptible host
stage, etc.
– Combined strategies :
• Diversification is often helpful in improving consistency of
a pest management problem.

29. IPM Strategies
• Practices :
– therapeutic versus preventive
– solving a problem
• identify the pest
• evaluate the situation
– sampling of insects or other pests
– determine if action is necessary
• economic injury levels - the break-even point where
costs of taking action equal the economic benefits of
preventing pest injury
– take action

30. Steps of an IPM Program
• Monitoring and Sampling (inspect)
• Pest Identification (what pest)
• Decision-making (what action)
• Intervention (take action)
• Follow-up (re-inspect)
• Record-keeping (write it down, history)
• Education (learn)

31. Monitoring / Scouting
• Thorough and consistent inspections
(scouting) before pest(s) cause
problems
– Sticky cards (aphids, whiteflies)
– Pheromones &Light trap ( Backlight trap )
– Indicator plants (petunias or fava beans for
thrips)

32. Monitoring
• Where do you look?
Under, on, and in leaves
On and in stems
On and in fruit
On and in the soil, etc.
• When do you look?
Morning
Afternoon
Evening
Night

33. Monitoring
How often do you look?
Hourly
Daily
Every few days
Weekly
Biweekly
• Establish a routine.
What is your level of commitment?

34. Steps of an IPM Program
• Monitoring and Sampling (inspect)
• Pest Identification (what pest)
• Decision-making (what action)
• Intervention (take action)
• Follow-up (re-inspect)
• Record-keeping (write it down, history)
• Education (learn)

38. Identification
• Most insects are benign or beneficial.
• Recognize pests
– 1% of known insect recognized as a pest

39. Proper Pest Identification
• Accurate identification is essential!
• If you are not sure, ASK someone who
does
• Otherwise the action (strategy) you
select will likely be ineffective and you
will have wasted your time and money.

40. WHY CORRECT PEST IDENTIFICATION
IS IMPORTANT?
• To determine if the pest is a key pest.
• To determine what pest control methods should
be utilized.
• Because incorrect identification can result in
ineffective pest control measures.
KEY PEST :
Not always the most numerous pest, but the one which
can cause the most significant damage

41. POPULATION CHANGES
(direct or major pest)

42. Population changes
indirect or occasional pest
(leaf miner )

43. Steps of an IPM Program
• Monitoring and Sampling (inspect)
• Pest Identification (what pest)
• Decision-making (what action)
• Intervention (take action)
• Follow-up (re-inspect)
• Record-keeping (write it down, history)
• Education (learn)

44. DECISION MAKING
WHAT ACTION

45. DECISION MAKING / WHAT ACTION
• IPM decisions are guided by “action
thresholds”
– Flexible guidelines that justify a treatment
or intervention
– Such action thresholds are determined by
the greenhouse manager

46. Decision Making
• What is the “best” action to take based
on the information collected?
– Consider:
• Cost of intervention ($$)
• Value of crop
• Potential for Damage
• Impact of Damage
• Effectiveness of intervention

47. Steps of an IPM Program
• Monitoring and Sampling (inspect)
• Pest Identification (what pest)
• Decision-making (what action)
• Intervention (take action )
• Follow-up (re-inspect)
• Record-keeping (write it down, history)
• Education (learn)

48. Criteria for selecting a treatment strategy
• Most likely to produce a significant reduction of
the pest population.
• Least disruptive of natural controls.
• Least hazardous to human health.
• Least toxic to non-target organisms
• Least damaging to the general environment.
• Easiest to carry out effectively.
• Most cost effective over both the short and long
terms.

49. Methods of Integrated Pest Management
Control Methods
Chemical Control
Biological Control Plant Resistance Cultural Controls

50. Intervention (Control Strategies)
• Biological
• Cultural (Mechanical/Physical)
• Host plant resistance
• Chemical (Pesticides)

51. What is Biological Control?
• Manipulation of biological organism to control pests :
– Release of predators/parasites/disease of an insect or weed
– Can be time consuming, expensive and difficult

52. Biological Control =
• The use of any living agent to suppress
pest populations :
– Predators
– Parasitoids
– Bacteria
– Fungi
– Nematodes

53. What is “Cultural Control”
• Agronomic practices that are designed to:
– Optimize growing conditions for the crop :
• Anything that increases a crop’s competitive edge
will result in increased tolerance to pests often
resulting in reduced pesticide use.
– Create unfavorable conditions for the pest

54. Cultural Controls
Soils and Nutrition
• Plants with adequate nutrition can grow more
vigorously, allowing them to better tolerate pest
damage or to compete better with weeds
• Soil cultivation can kill pests by exposing them to
sunlight, predators and injuring them

55. Cultural Controls
Sanitation
• Removal of rubbish, infested or decaying matter as
well as crop residues from around and in fields can
often eliminate breeding sites for pests
• Using seeds and planting materials which are free of
weed seeds and diseases
• Cleaning equipment before moving from infested
areas

56. Cultural Controls
Crop Rotation
Works on a limited number of pests, by replacing the host plant
with another crop for a period of time, allowing the pest
population to be reduced due to lack of a host. For this strategy
to work:
• The pest can not be highly mobile.
• The host range of the pest can not be wide.
• The source of the pest must be within the field.
• The pest must not be able to survive in the soil for a long period
of time.

57. Cultural Control
Multiple Cropping / Mixed Cropping
Growing a variety of crops together in the same location:
• Increases the habitat for pest predators.
• Limits the number of food plants for specific pests.

58. Cultural Controls
Trap Cropping
Crops which are planted to attract pests away from the
main crop

59. Cultural Controls
Soil Solarization
Uses a plastic tarp to cover the soil.
This tarp heats up the soil moisture to levels which are
lethal to many fungi, nematodes, weeds, weed seeds and
other pest organisms

60. Cultural Controls
Advantages
• Low cost (in most cases)
• Effects on non-target organisms
low
• No Toxicity or residue problems
Disadvantages
• Not always applicable
• May not be sufficiently
effective
• Usually preventive in
nature, so it requires
planning
• May interfere with normal
cultural operations

61. Plant Resistance
The use of species or varieties of plants that
can grow and produce despite the presence
of the pest.

62. What is Host Plant Resistance?
• Manipulating the crop to withstand or tolerate pests:
– Natural breeding method
– Genetically modified plants
– Not a permanent method of control
– Examples: Bt Corn

63. Methods of Plant Resistance
• Use of crop varieties which resist pest attack or
damage
• Use of varieties which inhibit pest attack through
toxic or repellent compounds or through physical
factors such as color or toughness.
• Use of varieties which have a high tolerance to
pest damage.

64. Plant Resistance
Advantages
• No harmful effects on
natural enemies of pests or
other non-target organisms
• No toxicity or residue
problems
• Can be a permanent solution
Disadvantages
• Pest resistant varieties or
species of cultivated plants
not available for all pests
• Level of control may not
be sufficient
• Discovery and
development is slow
• Resistant varieties may not
be agronomically
acceptable

65. Chemical Control
The use of toxic substances or pesticides to kill or
repel pests

66. The decision to use a pesticide should be based on:
• information obtained from monitoring/scouting
• knowledge of thresholds
• an awareness of potential benefits and risks associated
with a treatment

67. Questions to be thought through carefully before
using a pesticide:
• Is the pest you want to control listed on the pesticide label?
• Does the label state that it controls the pest or does it suppress the
pest?
• Are you familiar with the relevant university research and
recommendations?
• Is the recommended rate of application economical for your
operation?

68. Questions continued
• Is the pesticide a restricted use product?
• How toxic is the pesticide? dermally? orally?
• Does the pesticide have the potential to contaminate ground
water, even when label recommendations are followed?
• Will the use of this pesticide expose humans to health or safety
risks
• Will use of this pesticide threaten wildlife populations?

69. Chemical Control
Advantages
• Applicable to most pests
• Curative in effect
• Grower may apply when and
where required.
• Enable high levels of control
of most pests to be achieved.
• Non-blemished produce
Disadvantages
• May harm natural enemies and
other non-target organisms
• Resistance to the pesticide can
develop
• Often toxic to users and may
present residue problems
• Costs are high and recurring as
control is not permanent

70. “Each Pest Control
Technique Must be
Environmentally Sound”
Risk vs. Benefits

71. And
“Compatible with With
Producers Objectives”

73. Management Tactics of IPM
Sustainability
• Cultural Practices
• Biological Control
• Chemical Control
• Physical Methods

74.  Economics
 Natural resources
 Human welfare
 Environmental stewardship
Sustainability of IPM

76. Biological
Control
Other Tools
Pesticides
•Pesticides were
the 20th Century’s
foundation for
pest management.
•Pesticides were used
first and all other
decisions followed.
•Pesticides and
application costs
are nearly 25% of
tomato grower’s
expenses
Historical Pest Management Triangle

77. Chemical
Cultural & Physical
Biological Control
Biologically Based IPM Technologies
REDUCE RISK…
•Disease Epidemic
•Environmental
•Health Hazards
REDUCE COST
IPM TRIANGLE
INCREASE…
•Sustainability
•Biodiversity

78. Steps of an IPM Program
• Monitoring and Sampling (inspect)
• Pest Identification (what pest)
• Decision-making (what action)
• Intervention (take action )
• Follow-up (re-inspect)
• Record-keeping (write it down, history)
• Education (learn)

79. Follow-up!
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the
intervention implemented!
– Did it work?
– Why not?
– What is your next step?

80. Steps of an IPM Program
• Monitoring and Sampling (inspect)
• Pest Identification (what pest)
• Decision-making (what action)
• Intervention (take action )
• Follow-up (re-inspect)
• Record-keeping (write it down, history)
• Education (learn)

81. Record Keeping
• Maintain records of problems and solutions
• Such information is invaluable for future
situations
• Also, records can serve as a legal document
for potential litigation problems!.

82. Steps of an IPM Program
• Monitoring and Sampling (inspect)
• Pest Identification (what pest)
• Decision-making (what action)
• Intervention (take action )
• Follow-up (re-inspect)
• Record-keeping (write it down, history)
• Education (learn)

85. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF IPM?
Economic Benefits
Environmental benefits
Knowledge benefits

86. Economic Benefits of IPM
• Potential for savings on pesticide costs
1. Applying only when necessary
2. Lower application rates
• Potential for higher value and/or increased marketability due to
labeling as “IPM” or “reduced Input”
1. Consumers are more willing buy IPM produce
2. Consumers may be willing to pay more for IPM produce

87. ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS
Reduces chances of environmental contamination and worker health
problems by:
• Potentially reducing the use of pesticides
• Making full use of environmentally sound control measures

88. IPM CUTS THE RATE OF PESTICIDE APPLICATION BY:
• Controlling pest only when necessary
• Using the lowest effective rate
• Allowing for control by natural enemies of pests
• Reducing the chance of pests developing resistance

89. KNOWLEDGE BENEFITS
• Allows the grower to determine the seriousness of their
problem and take action when necessary
• Development of a greater understanding of pests and their
control
• Allows the grower to modify their pest management
program to meet their specific needs