Food Crisis Series 37: Stop pests from robbing our food! Practical pest control and Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

 Food Crisis Series 37: 

Stop pests from robbing our food!  Practical pest control and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) 

"Pests rob us by as much as 50 percent of the food we should be getting!" 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Part 1a - Garlic is effective and safe pesticide

There's a universal belief that garlic drives evil spirits away. Well, this time it's insect pest that it will drive out of your garden. Here are five ways to do it, entomologists (experts on insects) tell us.

1. Plant garlic among your garden plants, say mustard, tomato, pepper, okra, beans, and let it grow with them. Here is a caution though. Don't plant it too close to the crop so as to avoid its allelopathic effect (chemical secretion from its roots to compete with nearby plants).

Garlic serves as natural repellant of insects that would otherwise attack these crops, as well as ornamental plants. You can even harvest the bulbs at the end of the season. By the way, fresh garlic leaves are used in the kitchen like those of its relatives, kutchai (Allium tuberosum) and onion (Allium sepa). Try on fried eggs, batchoy and mami.

2. Hang garlic bulb on trellis and viny crops like patola (Luffa), ampalaya, cucumber, sitao, batao, and the like. Garlic exudes a repelling odor that keeps destructive insects at bay. Now and then crush some cloves in the open to refresh the garlic odor.

3. Make a spray solution direct from its cloves. The simple method is to soak crushed garlic cloves in water for a few minutes, then spray or sprinkle the solution on plants attacked by aphids, mites, caterpillars, and other pests. Adjust strength of solution to the severity of infestation. This may serve as a local disinfectant where there is no available approved chemical spray or fumigant.

Other than its repellent properties, garlic is also anti-bacterial and anti-viral. It could be for this that it was used to ward off the Bubonic Plague carrier - a flea (Xenopsylla cheopis) during the Dark Ages in Europe. It's no wonder people at that time believed in the power of this species of the Lily family in driving away evil spirits. Effectiveness of eating garlic precisely to control corona virus lacks direct evidence in modern medicine.  

4. This is another method. Soak approximately 100 grams of chopped garlic cloves in about 50 ml of mineral oil (turpentine or kerosene) or cooking oil for 24 hours. This is then slowly mixed with 500 ml of water in which 20 grams of powdered natural soap (Perla or Ivory) has been dissolved. Soap serves as emulsion to make oil and water miscible. Stir the solution well and strain it with an old shirt or nylon stocking, then store the filtrate in an earthen or glass container and keep it in a cool, dark place.

This serves as mother stock, ready for use, diluting it one part to twenty parts of water, or down to one part per hundred. It is reputed to be an effective insecticide against most common garden pests. It can be sprayed or sprinkled liberally on practically all plants, including ornamentals and orchids.

5. Garlic is planted as "trap crop." In spite of its repellant properties garlic is not pest-free. There are insects that attack it, such as thrips (Thrips tabaci), flea beetle (Epitrix), white flies (Bemesia), and some plant bugs (Hemiptera). Just allow the standing garlic plants to attract these insects, thus saving other crops from being attacked by the same insects. Then rouge the infested garlic plants and burn together with the pest.

Garlic can save us a lot of money, and eliminates the hazard to health and environment caused by chemical insecticides. It is an ancient practice in the Fertile Crescent, Egypt and ancient China, a key to natural and sustainable farming and a balance ecosystem.

Let's revive this simple practice today.~

Part 1 b - Two ways to ward off houseflies and midges 

Lighted candles drive flies away.

Houseflies - Musca domestica  (photo) are the most popular uninvited guests during a party, especially if it is one held outdoor. Before they build into a swarm, light some candles and place them strategically where they are most attracted. Candle smoke drives away houseflies and blue bottle flies (bangaw), keeping them at bay until the party is over. For aesthetic reason, make the setup attractive by using decorative candles and holders, especially one that can withstand a sudden gust of wind. Otherwise, just plant a large candle or two, at the middle of the serving table. If your guests ask what is this all about, blow the candle out momentarily and they will understand.

Hang a fresh branch of a tree or shrub near lighted bulb or lamp to keep midges (gamu-gamu) away from food and guests. 

Have you ever been pestered by tiny insects that are attracted by light during an outdoor dinner? These insects make a complex population of leafhoppers, mayflies, and other species of midges. Winged termites and ants often join the swarm. They are most prevalent at the onset of the rainy season in May or June and may last until the rice crop is harvested. In the province this is what you can do to control them and save the dinner party.

                                  Midge or gamu-gamu  

Cut a fresh branch or two, complete with leaves that do not easily fall off. The finer the leaves are, the better - sampaloc, madre de cacao, kamias, - or simply any source that is available, including shrubs and vines (kamote, mungo, corn, etc.) Hang the branch securely at the dim part above or close to the fluorescent bulb or Coleman lamp. Be sure not to obstruct the light. Keep away from the food and guests. Observe how the insects settle on the branch and stop flying around.

Insects are attracted by light, especially when there are only a few in the area. An outdoor dinner is ideal for them, attracting those even in distant fields. On arriving at the scene they become disoriented, for which reason they keep flying and flying around the light. With a foothold nearby for them to roost, the insects would gladly cease from their aimless search. Since the Coleman lamp was invented, more so when Thomas Edison came up with a brilliant idea that led to the manufacture of the incandescent light that soon “lighted the world,” nocturnal insects - from midge to moth – have been disturbed of their natural sense of bearing on celestial lights as they travel in darkness. Rizal romantically attributed the death of a moth - lost in its path and singed into the lamp - a heroic act. ~

Part 2 - IPM (Integrated Pest Management)

"IPM is a sustainable approach to managing pests by combining biological, cultural, physical and chemical tools in a way that minimizes economic, health and environmental risks."

Pillars of Integrated Pest Management

One of the primary missions of IPM is to help growers produce profitable crops using environmentally and economically sound approaches. These IPM tools contribute to a system that produces high-quality, safe, and affordable foods and other agriculturally related products. For many growers, IPM helps balance pest management with profitable crop production and environmental protection. IPM also reaches beyond agriculture to include pest management in landscape and home settings.

Pest management alternatives

IPM incorporates several pest management strategies to maintain crop profitability, minimize pest selection pressures, and minimize environmental impacts. Once a pest exceeds the economic threshold or reaches a threatening level, it is necessary to determine the best way to prevent unacceptable yield losses. Economic thresholds integrate the crop value and management costs with biological information on the relationship between pest injury and yield. The cost, safety, benefits, and risks of employing various management strategies are weighed and evaluated.

Cultural (agronomic practices)

• Selecting plant resistant varieties (Example: Growing resistant varieties of rice reduce incidence of tungro; wheat for reducing severity of wheat stem sawfly.)

• Crop rotation (Examples: rotation of rice and sweet potato crops reduces infestation of s potato beetle – Cylas formicarius.  Levels of Sclerotinia sclerotium, white mold, are reduced by crop rotation to non-susceptible hosts; common hosts of Sclerotinia in North Dakota are dry beans, sunflowers, soybeans, and canola.)

• Cultivation, tillage practices (Example: Cultivating row crops reduces herbicide applications.)

• Variation of planting or harvesting dates (Example: Delayed planting of sunflowers until late May or early June reduces sunflower stem weevil and sunflower beetle densities.)

• Plant spacing (Example: Narrower row spacing favors development of plant diseases due to environmental conditions within the crop canopy. More moisture on plant surfaces and higher relative humidity favors conditions for infection, such as with white mold in soybeans.)

• Fertilization level (Examples: A crop with balanced fertility levels has greater capacity to resist disease organisms and a greater capacity to compete with weeds. Too much nitrogen fertilizer in crucifers like cabbage and cauliflower predispose them to Pythium debaryanum and other kinds of bacterial and fungal diseases. )

• Sanitation (Example: Cleaning out storage areas or grain bins helps prevent infestations of stored grain insect pests, like rice weevil – Sitophilus oryza.)

• Planting pest-free seed (Example: Planting disease-free seed or using seed treatments with a fungicide will help protect germinating seed and seedlings from seedling blight.)

• Planting trap crops (Example: A trap crop consists of a field margin planted to an early maturing sunflower that surrounds the remaining sunflower field area. The margins flower earlier than the remaining field interiors and attract the red sunflower seed weevil first. As a result, the trap crop concentrates the weevils in a smaller area reducing the cost of insecticide and time required for control.)

Mechanical

• Cultivation (Example: Clean tillage between field rotations decreases the establishment of new weeds, especially perennials.)

• Hand weeding (Example: Removing weeds by hand is only practical for use by the home gardener, organic grower or researcher, although sugar beet growers will often hire labor for hand weeding.)

• Exclusion using screens or barriers (Example: Banding trees with Tanglefoot to control cankerworms.)

• Trapping, suction devices, collecting machines (Example: Walk-through fly trap removes horn flies from range cattle; apple maggot trap in home orchard.)

Physical

• Heat (Example: Burning surface residues, soil pasteurization.)
• Cold (Example: Cold storage of potatoes to prevent storage rot.)

Biological

• Augmentation of natural enemies (Example: Simple sugar solutions can be used as artificial honeydew to promote aggregation of adult lady beetles in aphid infested crops.)

• Introduction of parasites or predators (Example: Releasing biocontrol agents (Aphthona flea beetles) to control noxious weeds (leafy spurge).

• Propagation of diseases of pests (Example: Bacterial agents (Bacillus thuringiensis) for natural control of insect pests like Colorado potato beetle or European corn borer.)

• Protection of biological agents (Examples: spiders, preying mantis. Raising ducks on ricefield to control golden kuhol – Pomacea caniculata.)

Chemical

• Herbicides, Insecticides, Fungicides
• Miticides or Acaricides 
• Nematicides, Mollusicides
• Rodenticides, Avicides (maya)
• Biological pesticides (Examples, Bacillus thuringiensis bio-insecticide, insect molting inhibitors)
• Defoliants (2-4,D Amine and 2-4,d Ester),
• Desiccants

Steps of IPM

Scouting or monitoring
The purpose of scouting is to detect the presence, concentration, and type of pests. Scouting involves a regular and methodical procedure to quantify field information needed to make sound pest management decisions. Field observations are used to make immediate IPM decisions as well as record part of the field's history for making rational decisions in the future.

Identification
Properly identifying pests is an important aspect of scouting. Natural enemies that help keep pests in check are also present in fields, so it is important to recognize these friends. For example, certain insects, such as Syrphid flies, may be abundant in a field but do not cause crop damage. Knowledge of specific insects, weeds, or diseases in a field is important for IPM decision-making. Pest levels can vary greatly from one field to another. Each individual field should be scouted thoroughly without bias even though the fields may appear similar.

Pest situation assessment

In the third step, scouts analyze information obtained from scouting and pest identification and determine the need for pest control. One question is whether or not the damage potential is more costly than the control cost. The economic threshold plays an important role in IPM decisions and is defined as when there are enough pests present to warrant treating the crop. Keep in mind that economic thresholds are developed for average conditions. In unusual situations, such as drought stress, thresholds may have to be altered. Furthermore, economic thresholds may not be available for certain pests, so assessment may have to be based on general guidelines about the pest population.

Implementation

Once the management strategy (or strategies) has been selected, it should be employed in a timely manner. Cultivation or using herbicides on weeds, for example, must be done at the proper stages of development of the weed and the crop for greatest impact. IPM integrates several different pest management strategies when feasible.

Evaluation

Did IPM work? Compare the pest activity before and after implementation of IPM strategies. Review what went wrong and what went right. Was the pest properly identified? Was the field sampling unbiased? Was the choice of control based on sound judgment or outside pressure? What changes to the system would make it better?

IPM benefits

New products and innovative methods
New IPM products and methods are developed and extended to producers to maximize yields. Potato growers use a forecasting model to make accurate predictions of early and late blight development for specific potato production areas

Reduced crop loss through improved timing and efficiency of IPM strategies
For farmers this means producing high-quality, affordable products. For society, it means maintaining safe and ecologically sound environments. Calculating growing degree days and determining economic thresholds during field monitoring has resulted in successful prediction, detection and economic control of this pest.

Judicious use of pesticides decreases environmental impacts
As researchers develop environmental friendly ways to manage pests, IPM practitioners have helped farmers reduce unnecessary pesticide use.  Minimized use of pesticides has allowed the return of indigenous edible species growing in ricefields like dalag, hito, martiniko, ulang, kuhol and others

Increased partnership
IPM Programs are being incorporated by growers, crop consultants, and industry into crop production systems, and have increased collaboration between private and public stakeholders. Farmers’ Cooperatives and Irrigation Associations are the best local institutions to adopt IPM. This has been shown by the Farmers Associations of Taiwan, communes in China, and Moshav in Israel.
 

The success of IPM depends on community awareness and action, through media such as the use of posters (left), TV-Radio, Inrternet, magazines and newsletters, and commemorative stamp (Trichogramma wasp for biological control in DPR Korea). 

Living with Folk Wisdom, UST-AVR 2008 ~