On Friday, November 13, Associate Dean Julie Suarez, of Cornell CALS Office of Land Grant Affairs and Commissioner Richard Ball from the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets hosted what we hope will be the first of many IPM FORUMS. This free, online presentation targeting the general public and educators focused on What is IPM? citing new ways NYSIPM and Cornell collaborators are ‘integrating pest management’ across a wide variety of community and agricultural venues.
Watch the presentation on our YouTube channel.
A big thank you to Julie for hosting! She quickly got the ball rolling with introductions:
NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets Commissioner Richard Ball is a farmer first. A great supporter of our program, he considers IPM ‘common sense’, and champions the widening uses of science and technology in management decisions.
After that welcome from Julie and Richard, Dr. Alejandro Calixto, Director of the NYSIPM Program spoke on how IPM has grown from its roots to today’s groundbreaking uses of digital technologies and biological controls. Alejandro is the new director of the NYSIPM Program and brings a strong background in entomology and partnerships with land grant and industry collaborators. He reminded us how far the IPM concept has come since Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, Silent Spring, and the establishment of the EPA in the 1970s. “IPM is not a reliance on pesticides, but includes only careful use of them when no alternatives are available or sufficient to keep pest populations below damaging levels.” He’s eager to see where the technologies reported on during this forum will take IPM in the future.
Alejandro’s presentation led perfectly to the next speaker. Dan Olmstead, NEWA Coordinator, NYSIPM, explained how digital decision support tools are allowing growers to predict and respond to pest threats, therefore reducing chemical sprays. NEWA collects weather data and integrates it with known biological factors of insect and disease pests. The NEWA network has expanded well beyond the state because it’s such an important resource. But, as Dan reminds us, technology without the hands-on knowledge of researchers and educators only goes so far. That’s why so many specialists are part of this process. Coming soon, Dan believes NEWA’s digital technologies will also assist pest management in community IPM, not just agricultural.
Dr. Juliet Carroll, Fruit IPM Specialist, spoke on how a fast response to an unexpected fruit pest, Spotted Wing Drosophila, stopped a repeat of devastation in 2017. That year, SWD caused catastrophic loss of sour cherry crops in orchards along Lake Ontario. The lake’s moderating influence drives NY’s bountiful Fruit Belt, but in the case of this tiny invasive fruit fly, it also created a dangerous overlap of fruit fly life cycle with a susceptible period in sour cherry maturation.key tenet of IPM—monitoring—saved the day. Quick action in the spring of 2018 meant timely warnings in areas hard hit the previous year, and for some growers, few or no sprays at all. Using IPM turned around what had been a grower’s nightmare, and created a flexible response system that saved lakeshore sour cherry orchards.
Next up. Urban Rats. Dr. Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann, Community IPM Coordinator, presented work primarily done by co-worker, Dr. Matt Frye. Urban rats are so common that city dwellers often co-exist with the damage rats do to soil and structures. This study examined an even darker side. Rats carry diseases in their saliva and excrement, including diseases that researches hadn’t expected to see. These big rodents also host fleas and lice—vectors themselves of certain diseases. Beyond increased dislike and distrust for these plentiful rodents, this study facilitated increased efforts to reduce rat populations by reducing habitat (food and shelter). Jody also touched upon Matt Frye’s recent work examining current methods of rodent monitoring near food processing plants. They went in wondering if improvements could be made to standard placements of monitoring stations. The answer was yes—proof that pest management should always be moving forward. NYSIPM’s history of collaboration with researches around the northeast will continue to do just that.
Guest speaker Dr. David Gadoury of the Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology department, at Cornell AgriTech, really ‘shed some light’ on new technologies as he showed examples of how certain fungal diseases of plants can be reduced with UV light. David’s focus has been on powdery mildew, one of the most widespread problems of growers with hundreds of acres of produce, or your children nurturing a pumpkin plant. Use of fungicides has led to fungicide resistance, failures of ‘powdery-mildew resistant’ plants, and limited options for organic growers. You won’t be surprised to know that New York’s climate favors powdery mildew problems. Oh, and did we mention its impact on vineyards?
David’s presentation showed how use of UV light applied at night significantly reduced this problem and how bright its future is as a unique pest management tool. A piece of robotic equipment named Thorvald can sometimes be seen at night doing the good work of killing off powdery mildew fungus on grapevine. More pieces of equipment like this will be used like this next season.
This was the first of our IPM Forums. Awareness of how integrated pest management INTEGRATES multiple tools against pest problems is essential to understanding IPM. Thank you for reading. Visit the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program’s website for more information.
Consider subscribing to the Think IPM Blog by going to the top right of this page. You’ll receive notification of new blog posts on a variety of IPM and NY topics.