Pests monitoring and forecasting

Learning Outcomes:

• Learn the importance of pest monitoring and forecasting.
• Define the most popular and widely used monitoring techniques and explain their use in integrated pest management.

Many producers routinely apply pesticides plant protection products (PPP) on a calendar schedule when pest infestations are suspected or when pest populations are already high and difficult to control. The total cost of pest control over the production cycle can be expensive when calendar applications are used. Excessive spraying can render pesticides PPP ineffective by promoting pest resistance to pesticides; applications can cause phytotoxicity; increasing regulations make spraying more difficult.

In the European Union, integrated pest management (IPM) is used in conventional agricultural production. IPM is based on the integration of all available methods and tools with the aim of keeping the pest population below the threshold. The same approach is applied in organic production. The difference with conventional production as practised in the EU is that farmers can use chemical pesticides at IPM, while in organic production only a limited number of products can be used. Therefore, pest monitoring as one of the basic principles of IPM should also be used for pest management in organic farming.

In many cases, a certain number of pests and a low level of damage can be tolerated; this concept is fundamental to integrated pest management (IPM) It is difficult to set specific thresholds and guidelines because the significance of the presence of pests or damage depends on many factors, including the tolerance of the farmer.

It is best to start monitoring pest populations before introducing or changing pest control measures. Monitoring is the systematic collection, recording and analysis of observations over time. The most important thing is to learn what trap caches reflect compared to pest damage and crop quality. Then it is necessary to modify control measures based on monitoring information. Farmers who systematically monitor their crops can develop their own thresholds. Many numerical thresholds can be developed for most monitoring methods.