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Integrated Pest
Management and BASIC |
4
BASIC is a system that helps farmers save money by limiting
or eliminating the need of pesticides. This is achieved
by the use of Integrated Pest Management techniques, otherwise
known as IPM. IPM is the selection, integration, and use
of control methods based on scientific knowledge of the
crop and the pest as well as associated pests and beneficials
in order to achieve desirable economic, ecological, and
sociological goals.
Natural
Enemies
The suppression of pests below the economic
threshold is achieved through biological control via natural
enemies. Biological control is any activity of one species
that reduces the adverse effects of other species. Natural
enemies are organisms that kill, decrease the reproductive
potential, or otherwise reduce the numbers of another organism.
The natural enemies that reduce pest populations in the
BASIC program do so primarily through parasitism or predation.
A predator is an organism that attacks, kills, and feeds
on several or many other individuals (its prey) in its life
time. A parasite is an organism that lives in or on a larger
host.
Monitoring
An important component of the BASIC system is intensive
monitoring, to establish pest and beneficial levels. Field
monitoring provides information on the crop, pests, and
biological control agents. Natural enemies sometimes provide
sufficient control to completely manage a pest, but it is
common for natural enemies to reduce pest populations, but
not enough to prevent economic loss.
Beneficial habitats
Natural enemy populations can be increased through planting
beneficial habitat adjacent to cotton fields, by planting
cotton adjacent to alfalfa, or native habitat and augmented
releases of beneficial insects. The ideal situation in cotton
is to have the insects reared on site in either the field
or beneficial habitat. Augmented releases should be reserved
for treating hot spots, because without naturally occurring
beneficials there is no way one could supply enough insects
to treat the entire field. A hot spot is a place in the
field where the pests are out numbering the beneficials
and the damage is noticeable. This is where augmented releases
of beneficials are used to suppress the pest population
below the economic injury threshold. After the pest populations
are suppressed, the hot spots serve as on site insectaries
for beneficials.
Avoid early spring spraying
The key to rearing insects on farm is the avoidance of early
spring sprays. This allows natural enemies to increase in
population and control target pests which in turn can prevent
secondary pest outbreaks. A secondary pest is an insect
that in normal circumstances is controlled by natural enemies.
The immediate effect of spraying is not only a reduction
in the number of pests, but an even greater reduction of
natural enemies. The resulting unfavorable ratio of pests
to natural enemies permit’s a rapid increase of target
pest populations. This causes farmers to treat more often
for insects which would normally be controlled by natural
enemies. Chemicals kill good bugs as well as bad ones, this
the root cause of the insecticide treadmill.
To help ensure farmers do not get on the insecticide
treadmill, BASIC uses five methods of scouting the field
and its associated beneficial habitat.
1. The first tool is
soil and petiole sampling
A nutrient deficient plant is more susceptible to insect
injury than a healthy one. For this reason, BASIC provides
for one soil sample and two petiole samples each season.
Aphids and white fly prefer plants that are high in nitrogen,
so farmers should avoid excessive or poorly scheduled nitrogen
applications.
2. Plant mapping is
another tool utilized by the BASIC team
Plant mapping provides an indication of the cotton plant’s
growth and development. Plant mapping programs have been
developed to aid growers in determining if their plants
are growing at a normal pace for good yield. Plant mapping
allows the farmer to make management decisions on when to
pix, changes in irrigation practices, nitrogen fertilization,
and defoliation. Plant mapping also allows the farmer to
see what his/her square and boll retention is. Through the
use of sweep net and D-Vac samples the farmer can decide
if the square loss is due to lygus pressure or environmental
conditions.
3. Sweep net and D-Vac
are two sampling techniques used by BASIC to determine
pest and beneficial levels. Sweep net sampling consists
of 50 sweeps across a single row of cotton, using a standard
net with a diameter of 15 inches. All pest and beneficials
are recorded in their proper stage of development.
4. The D-Vac operates
like a vacuum and it works a lot like the sweep net,
except it is better at extracting extremely small insects
and insects that are in their nymphal and larval stages
of development.
5. The last sampling
technique employed by BASIC is leaf sampling
Mites, aphids, thrips, and certain beneficials are sampled
with this technique. 100 leaves are randomly selected throughout
the field and checked for those insects.
Through the use of sweep net, D-Vac, and leaf sampling the
BASIC management team is able to determine if biological
control is working. It could be possible that all is needed
is augmented releases of beneficials.
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