STRATEGY=SOLUTION – According to Fred Baxendale, a good pest management strategy includes four basic elements:
- Recognizing the behavior and damage of the pest,
- Accurate identification of the pest,
- Early detection and monitoring of the pest, and
- Effective management of the pest.
As a professor at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Neb., Baxendale admitted that following this procedure can be a challenge because lawn care applicators need to be out in the field constantly identifying pests to become better at consistently controlling them.
"Contractors can’t go out one day and control 90 percent of the pests and then use the same procedure the next day and control only 20 percent of the pests," Baxendale explained. "A good pest management strategy is about consistency, so a better goal would be to find a program that can assure contractors 50 to 70 percent control of the pests every time."
The next step is deciding whether a curative or preventative control agent would work better, Baxendale said. The curative approach is defined as selected applications based on insect infestation levels, he said, but this method needs a lot of sampling, monitoring and can only be performed effectively during a short treatment window.
As curative products are slowly being removed from the market due to environmental legislation, Baxendale said contractors should concentrate on learning about preventative insect control now. Two preventative products on the market now – Merit and Mach 2 – and a new product, Meridian, a product from Novartis that will be on the market in 2001, have advanced the possibilities of preventative pest control, according to Baxendale.
"Years ago, products could only be used as curative control agents," he pointed out. "Today, the products on the market have a lot more residual and can be used as preventative control agents instead. If the curative products that we’ve relied upon were still going to be around in the future, manufacturers wouldn’t be spending millions of dollars on the development of new chemistry. Contractors need to learn how to use these new products."
"Also," Baxendale continued, "because preventative products offer a broad window of activity and attach a variety of pests, contractors can control several insects with just one application."
The author is Associate Editor of Lawn & Landscape.