Top Ten DOs and DON’Ts for School IPM Success

Posted on December 19, 2012 by rhallberg

By: Jodi Schmitz, Janet Hurley, and Dr. Thomas Green

Although the following tips are written for school personnel, several of the recommendations can help the homeowner as well. If you’re not sure where to find some of the equipment mentioned, call your local university extension and ask for the person who handles school or residential IPM.

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Farming Practices 101, Part 2: IPM vs. sustainable agriculture

Posted on November 9, 2012 by rhallberg

The term “sustainable agriculture” was first coined by Wes Jackson in his 1980 book, New Roots for Agriculture, but the term didn’t become popular until the late 1980s (Kirschenmann). Even before the 1980s, some agricultural specialists were promoting alternatives to what was becoming an increasingly industrialized farming system, but those alternatives varied greatly in focus.

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Filed under: Crop rotation, Insects, Pesticides, Weed Control | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Farming Practices 101: Conventional, IPM, Sustainable Agriculture and Organic, Part 1

Posted on October 22, 2012 by rhallberg

News stories about the University of Copenhagen study on the nutritional value of organic foods may have left many people confused about what the difference really is between food grown “conventionally” or “organically” and if the increased price for organic food is really worth it. Although most people in the general public probably recognize the terms “conventional” and “organic” for agriculture, there are two other major terms that apply to agricultural practices: “integrated pest management” and “sustainable agriculture.”

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Filed under: Crop rotation, Insects, Pesticides | Tagged: , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

What IS Integrated Pest Management anyway? And what does it do for you?

Posted on April 6, 2012 by rhallberg

I never know who looks at our blog–whether they’re a specialist or a homeowner, and whether or not they even know what integrated pest management is. This post is dedicated to those of you who have come here and don’t know what integrated pest management is. The rest of you can have the day off–or have fun reading.

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Biocontrol Deconstructed, Part 2

Posted on October 20, 2011 by rhallberg

The hemlock woolly adelgid has destroyed millions of acres of Eastern hemlocks in the Eastern United States. Other invasives such as the gypsy moth, bean plataspid, and Asian longhorned beetle wreak economic and ecological havoc every year, with few available chemicals to control them. Biological control is often a viable option for pest management when other available controls are not feasible or do not work.

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Know What’s Bugging You (or your plants, more specifically)

Posted on August 20, 2010 by rhallberg

Integrated pest management involves using the right control for the right pest at the right time. A can of Raid intended for ants will not generally be useful against a colony of wasps. Control of insects, weeds and diseases requires knowing what the problem is before reaching for the nearest pesticide.

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An Old Friend Takes a Big Hit: NY IPM Slashed

Posted on July 26, 2010 by jimvankirk

As feared, the New York IPM Program was severely cut by New York’s state budget. This excerpt from a letter from Director Don Rutz tells the short version:

For the 2010-2011 budget year we were allocated $500,000 for Agricultural IPM and, most unfortunately, $0 for Community IPM. This represents about a third of our state allocation in recent years. When this is combined with our federal USDA IPM funding, we have approximately $700,000 that can be used for IPM. Therefore, we have funding for approximately only half of the IPM programming that we did in 2009. Obviously this will have most significant impacts on both our staffing and programming for the coming year.

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406 IPM – Another Avenue Missed

Posted on July 16, 2010 by jimvankirk

I remember my first drive to Raleigh, 6 years ago when I took this job. It was after dark at the end of a long day. We were in sporadic phone and voicemail conversation with my friend, Ron, who was trying to direct me to the best way into town (I didn’t have a GPS). Our conversation, over the course of an hour or so, went something like this:

Ron, I’m on Rt. 85, just crossed the Carolina line. Where do I turn?

Head south on Rt. 1 at Henderson

Oops, we passed that 10 minutes ago.

(later) No worries. Take Rt. 15 at Oxford.

Dang, I can see that exit…in the rear view mirror. Now what?

(no signal).

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Spending the Summer with Mosquitoes

Posted on July 12, 2010 by danesha
Asian tiger mosquito

image provided by Bugwood.org

Ah, summer! Vacations have started, pools are already crowded and the mosquitoes are biting. The intense heat that has plagued the east coast seems to have made this year’s mosquitoes more plentiful and vicious. For anyone who wants to know how to reduce the number of mosquitoes in his or her yard (although it’s virtually impossible), the Web has hundreds of suggestions on mosquitoes control. If you’re in the South, go to the list at the bottom of the page to find a fact sheet on mosquitoes for your state.

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Filed under: Insects, Invasive species | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

IPM on the Golf Course

Posted on April 26, 2010 by rhallberg

The new golf course at NC State University will hopefully have a lot of people talking—about IPM. The Lonnie Poole golf course, located at NC State University, is one of the state’s environmentally-friendly golf courses. One of the course’s most exciting features is the use of IPM to control pests and diseases on the turf.

Click here to listen to a short clip on the use of IPM on the Lonnie Poole golf course.

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