New Guide Offers Latest in Carrot Weevil Management
Carrot weevil (Listronotus oregonensis) is a pest of carrots as well as parsley and celery. A new profile in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management gathers a variety of IPM methods for fending off carrot weevil and highlights where research is needed to better understand its biology and behavior.
Gender Research in IPM: Women’s Empowerment as a Key to Unlocking Food Security
In developing countries, women make up 43 percent of the agricultural labor force, so incorporating women's input into the application of integrated pest management activities has major implications for IPM success. Ongoing research is aimed at improving equity and access in designing IPM programs.
To Boost IPM Adoption, Treat It as a Complex Social System
Pest management is more than just matching pests with control methods. A tangled web of societal influences also play a role in growers' decisions and their uptake of integrated pest management, and researchers say the science of "social ecological systems" can inform efforts to increase IPM adoption.
Stink Bugs Stay Out: Study Measures Gaps Needed for Invasion
If a structure has a gap or entrance large enough for brown marmorated stink bugs to fit through, they will find it. But a new study shows that slits less than 3 millimeters wide and holes less than 7 millimeters wide should successfully exclude the vast majority of the bugs. A related study examines how overwintering stink bugs react to corpses of their fellow bugs remaining from previous winters.
Little, Fuzzy, But Not So Cute: The Hemlock Woolly Adelgid
A new profile in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management takes an in-depth look at the hemlock woolly adelgid, a pernicious pest of hemlocks in eastern North America, and the latest guidance on managing it.
Glowing on the Golf Course: Fluorescent Imaging Reveals Turfgrass Pest’s Most Active Period
Researchers now know the temperature range in which the annual bluegrass weevil is most active, thanks to a set of tools first adopted for underwater photography.
Not Just Maize: Africa’s Fall Armyworm Crisis Threatens Sorghum, Other Crops, Too
The fall armyworm's impact on maize earns plenty of attention, but it is in fact polyphagous. Sorghum, a key cereal crop in Africa, is also vulnerable to the pest's damage, and researchers are working on biocontrol and other integrated pest management methods in hopes of containing the fall armyworm's impact around the world.
Mixing It Up: Mixed-Crop Fields Can Boost Natural Biocontrol of Insect Pests
A new study shows that growing a variety of crops in the same field increases local insect diversity and even improves the ratio of natural-enemy insects to pest insects.
Beer Brewers’ Spent Yeast Could Be Next Bait for Fruit Fly Pest
Researchers in China say a protein bait derived from leftover brewer's yeast attracted more spotted-wing drosophila flies than existing attractants in a lab test.
Whatever Happened to People in Integrated Pest Management?
As integrated pest management continues to grow and evolve, one practitioner urges us not to forget the people side of IPM. However well-crafted an IPM plan may be, it can only be effective when the various individuals asked to carry it out are fully committed.
Attract-and-Kill Strategy Shows Promise for Managing Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs
By using the brown marmorated stink bugs' own aggregation pheromone, the pests can be lured into a condensed area, thereby reducing the area that a grower must spray with insecticide. A two-year study in apple orchards suggests the method could soon become economically feasible.
Train-the-Trainer Program Multiplies Reach of IPM Knowledge
In Missouri, a series of "train-the-trainer" workshops have provided extension educators with the latest knowledge in integrated pest management to share with growers throughout the state.
Why Integrated Pest Management is Due for a Reset
In a new paper in American Entomologist, three experts suggest a modified focus for integrated pest management that better accounts for evolution and tolerance to pest injury and shifts from control toward management.
Array of Management Methods Needed to Curb the Pesky Squash Vine Borer
The larva of the squash vine borer burrows into the stems and crowns of squash, zucchini, and pumpkin plants, causing wilting damage. A new guide in the open-access Journal of Integrated Pest Management outlines a variety of management methods to combat the squash vine borer.
Fighting Nature With Nature: Scientists Mobilize Biological Control Against Devastating Fall Armyworm
Researchers at Virginia Tech's Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Integrated Pest Management are looking to biological control for the fall armyworm, with plans to deploy native, mass-reared parasitoid wasps in Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia in the coming year.
Fluid Termite Bait Aims to Combine Best of Both Management Methods
A new termite-control method currently in development looks to combine the advantages of a liquid insecticide application with the comprehensive impact of existing solid termite bait systems.