Prevention

• Avoid conditions favorable for disease development
• Practice good santitation (i.e. disinfest equipment, tools, remove infested plant debris, etc.)
• Rouge out alternate pest hosts

Avoidance

• Crop rotation
• Pest resistant plants
• Trap crops
• Pheromone traps
• Time planting to avoid pests
• Segregate infested plants
• Row covers or screening for greenhouses

Monitoring

• Scout plantings for signs or symptoms of pests
• Keep up-to-date with survey and/or forecasting and advisory information
• Keep records of pests, their location, population levels, incidence, etc.

Suppression-- use in conjunction with other IPM tactics when:

• Preventative tactics cannot contain pests to acceptable levels
• When pest population/incidence has reached a threshold level
• When forecasting models/advisories issue a control recommendation

Return to Top

Suppressive Tactics

Use suppressive tactics in conjuntion with preventative tactics. Pesticides should only be used when other tactics have failed to contain pest injury to acceptable levels, when pest population/incidence has reached a threshold level or when forecasting models/advisories issue a control recommendation.

Cultural

• Row and plant spacings
• Tillage practices
• Cover crops
• Mulches
• Allelopathic plant rotations

Physical

• Cultivation
• Mowing weeds
• Pest traps
• Pest barriers
• Segregation

Biological

• Pheromones
• Growth regulators
• Predators, parasites
• Entomopathogenic nematodes
• Toxin-producing microbes

Pesticides--Pesticides should be the last line of defense and used in a manner to minimize associated risks.

• Use only when reasonably certain that a benefit will result from a pesticide application (e.g. The economic threshold has been reached.)
• Choose pesticides by evaluating their efficacy, cost, toxicity, persistence, and environmental effects.
• Biorational products are preferable to low (i.e. less potential to for negative health and environmental effects compared to high risk pesticides) or high risk products. Low risk products are preferable to high risk products.
• Target and minimize product use (e.g. Use precision agriculture techniques.).
• Identify best application methods for optimal pest control and calibrate equipment.
• Alternate chemicals to avoid using ones with the same mode of action (i.e. Avoid development of pesticide resistance in the pest population.).
• Use vegetative buffers to reduce contamination of watersheds with pesticides.

Return to Top

Virginia Cooperative Extension - Virginia Agriculture & Experiment Station