If you grow peppers from transplants, especially in high tunnels or greenhouses, scout starting now for pepper weevil — a pest you’ve probably never seen, let alone heard of. This weevil is tiny, just 1/8 inch long, but it packs a punch disproportionate to its size. In fact, its action threshold is exactly ONE — one…Continue Reading Pepper Weevil: All-Points Alert
Farming NYC’s Watershed the IPM Way
Keeping fruits, veggies and ornamentals safe from hungry bugs, invasive weeds, and the potential downsides of pesticides and fertilizers — it matters everywhere, of course, but it really matters in New York City’s watershed among the streams and rivers feeding into the reservoirs that provide safe drinking water to millions of people in metro-New York….Continue Reading Farming NYC’s Watershed the IPM Way
In Greenhouses, Good Science = Good ¢
In the cold Northeast, heat costs money. And no one knows it better than greenhouse growers. With Mother’s Day just around the corner, growers are ramping up for one of their biggest sales days of year — which until now, has meant cranking up the thermostat. Not any more. Growers want to save money…Continue Reading In Greenhouses, Good Science = Good ¢
Review Your Balance Sheet (aka Better Late Than … )
… Never. This post was slated to go live the same day Uncle Sam started surcharging tardy tax returns. Then — human error took over. You don’t have to step back in time, though, for this post to help you — it’s as relevant now as it was on April 15. And it’ll stay…Continue Reading Review Your Balance Sheet (aka Better Late Than … )
Year of the cicadas — again!
They’re back. And IPM’s Matt Frye is here to tell you about it. For those who witnessed the last bumper crop of 17-year cicadas back in 1996, it was nigh unforgettable. And it about to happen again. In fact, maps going back 100 years track hatches of the 17-year cicada and its cousin, the…Continue Reading Year of the cicadas — again!
Sentinel Plants and GDDs
Keep your weather eye open: using sentinel plants and weather info to stay abreast of pests Growers statewide are gearing up for the growing season: calibrating their equipment, prepping fields, packing their greenhouse benches, seeding the earliest crops. And though the main crop of insect pests needs a spell of warm weather to rev…Continue Reading Sentinel Plants and GDDs
Don’t bee fooled
April can fool you all month long. Even if your pest-prevention responsibilities lie mostly indoors where frost and rain rarely intrude — a school, an office building, a museum, your home — April has some tricks up her sleeve. Those perimeter pests, for example: wasps, bees, ants, termites. For many species of wasps and bees,…Continue Reading Don’t bee fooled
Year of the Land Grant
Land grant. The year: 1862. Congress granted thousands of acres of federally owned land to each state, with the promise that sales from the land would finance a college dedicated to knowledge with a public purpose. When Ezra Cornell and Andrew White were elected to New York's state senate in 1863, they worked (at first…Continue Reading Year of the Land Grant
The Giving Tree
Your spent Christmas tree can still bring joy. Deck it out with strings of cranberries and popcorn. Or smear chunks of stale bread with peanut butter and roll them in birdseed, then nest them in the branches. You’ll be investing in one of nature’s best pest patrols: birds that survive winter in fine fettle will,…Continue Reading The Giving Tree
Welcome
This is the blog of the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program. We help people develop sustainable ways to manage pests and use methods that minimize environmental, health, and economic risks….Continue Reading Welcome