Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 5.4
Independent pest-control advisor Laura Breyer shows growers how to determine
if a pest is causing economic damage at a Sonoma County Winegrape Growers
Association field day.
Helping growers and PCAs to see not just a pest insect but an insect
complex—including natural enemies—has been a goal of IPM for five
decades. UC research conducted during the 1970s, the 1980s, and the
1990s about insect pests and their natural enemies—including improved
traps, accurate monitoring protocols, and better population models—
made new monitoring practices possible. Agroecological partnerships
mark a new era in the application of ecological ideas in agriculture
because a majority of them move beyond IPM to monitor and analyze
the entire farming system and manage it in an ecologically optimal way.
Expert monitoring by PCAs or other skilled entomologists was and
will continue to be critical to the success of the pheromone mating dis-
ruption. When pheromone-based products were first brought to market,
few growers and PCAs had the agroecological skills to monitor and
understand the population dynamics of the codling moth. Because
mating-disruption technologies do not kill, the insect pest is usually still
