Recently in IPM Integrated Pest Mgt Category

By following intensive biological farming practices, Sustainable Cotton Project growers reduced the use of the most toxic pesticides on their cotton. Moreover, they slashed overall pesticide use by up to 70%.

A short documentary produced by the Davis, California-based Sustainable Cotton Project (SCP)has been produced by Gibbs and videographer Liam Creighton. The "Cleaner Cotton" video documents the cotton project's impressive campaign to improve the environment, public health and agriculture economy of Firebaugh, a small rural Central Valley farming town about 40 miles west of Fresno.

"Look at the things we're doing for the community, reducing pesticides in the watershed," Firebaugh grower John Texeira says in the video. The eco-friendly farming practices paid off at harvest, too. "We had yields better than our neighbors."

Indeed, Sustainable Cotton Project growers are leaving an imprint on the San Joaquin Valley, which produces some of the finest cotton in the world, a high-quality fiber that can command a premium price.

The region produces about 90% of the nation's Pima cotton, the Cadillac of cotton in the U.S., rivaling the fine Egyptian quality.

Global Green Cotton Market

In the past six years, participating farmers have produced more than one million pounds of Sustainable Cotton Project's trademarked Cleaner Cotton® for the $5 billion-a-year global green cotton market. The project is working with major retailers such as Gap Inc, Levi Strauss & Co, Williams Sonoma, North Face and others to incorporate the eco-friendly cotton into their product lines.

View "Cleaner Cotton" Online

The cotton video is part of the work of the Sustainable Cotton Project. Learn more at: Cleaner Cotton. The Sustainable Cotton Project is a private non-profit working under the direction of the Community Alliance with Family Farmers in Davis.

"Killer spices" provide eco-friendly pesticides for organic fruits and veggies

Rosemary, thyme, clove, and mint are well-known spices that are emerging as organic agriculture's key weapons against insect pests.

Scientists in Canada are reporting new research on these so-called "essential oil pesticides" or "killer spices." These pesticides have added to the crop-preserving arsenal of organic growers and offer several advantages over their counterparts -- they're readily available and don't require lots of regulatory approval.

And they're safer for gardeners and farm workers, who are at high risk for pesticide exposure.

Murray Isman, Ph.D., of the University of British Columbia is developing these pesticides.

So, just what is it exactly about these spices that allow them to work their magic outside the kitchen? Here's Dr. Isman again:

"It turns out that some of these oils and some of the chemical constituents in the oils are neurotoxic to many types of insects. At least one of their actions, and we're not certain about all of their actions, one of their actions is they interfere with a neuromodulator in insects called octopamine. It's sort of an internal valium for insects, it sort of calms them down so their nervous systems
don't get overstimulated by external stimuli. If you remove that octopamine, which is what
some of these oils do, they get hyperexcited and eventually die."

These pesticides, usually a combination of spices diluted with water, have added to the crop-preserving arsenal of organic growers and offer several advantages over their counterparts. First, they are readily available and don't require lots of regulatory approval. Also, insects exposed to the spices are less likely to evolve resistance to the toxins. And, they're safer for farm workers, who are at high risk for pesticide exposure. 

"Some of these oils, as some other people have mentioned, are very good antimicrobials,
so they could be very useful against food spoilage organisms, for example. They are useful
against certain plant pathogenic fungi and bacteria, and they do have this phytotoxic effect
on plants, so at high concentrations they can be used as natural herbicides."

These "killer spices" aren't just limited to agricultural use. Some show promise in the home as eco-friendly repellents against mosquitoes, flies and roaches. And, perhaps as an unexpected bonus, these natural pesticides can have a pleasant, spicy aroma. Some in fact contain the same oils used in aromatherapy products, including cinnamon and peppermint.

A recent study at Oregon State University has shown that native bumble bee species have consistently high pollination and seed production levels in red clover.

The bumble bee pollination findings offer promise for the use of bumble bee crop pollinators as an alternative to European honey bees, whose populations have recently declined in many areas of the United States.

Red clover, which is grown for forage and as a rotation crop to improve soil, is raised for seed in western Oregon's Willamette Valley. It will not produce seed without pollination, so growers typically place two to five European honey bee hives on each hectare. 

Search for Alternative Pollinators

Bee diseases, mites, and colony collapse disorder have recently limited availability and resulted in higher costs for hive rentals. Given these changes, an alternative pollinator for red clover seed crops is needed.

Worldwide there are over 200 species of bumble bees; some of whom are known to pollinate red clover. While commercially reared bumble bee species are available to growers elsewhere, they are considered exotic species in Oregon and cannot be introduced into the state. This leaves Oregon growers dependent on naturally occurring populations of bumble bees as pollinators. However, there is currently no information on the pollination efficiency of native bumble bee species.

Scientific Evaluation of Blooms and Seed Set

Through funding from the Clover Commission, scientists at Oregon State University investigated native bumble bees in commercial fields of red clover seed crops in the Polk County region of the Willamette Valley. Prior to bloom, researchers covered plants with mesh-screened cages. European honey bee hives were placed in some cages and nests of B. vosnesenskii, a native Oregon bumble bee,in others. Some cages were also left vacant. After bloom, seed yield and seed set were compared amongst the different cages. Seed set was also evaluated in four different fields without cages to assess the efficiency of existing bee pollinators. In addition to analyzing seed set, researchers assessed the diversity and abundance of native bumble bees through visual observations of foragers on red clover flowers and through trapping bumble bees in blue vane traps. 

Pollination Differences between Bumble Bees and Honey Bees

While there were no differences in seed yield or average seed set in cages with bumble bees compared to honey bees, the study revealed:

• Variability across cages was lower with bumble bees indicating that bumble bee pollination is more uniform than pollination by European honey bees.
  
• The abundance of bumble bee peaked during mid-to-late bloom.
  
• They recorded six species of bumble bees gathering pollen from red clover flowers. Of these, more than 92% consisted of B. vosnesenskii, indicating that it is the key pollinator in Oregon.
  
• 25 more species of native solitary bees, belonging to 12 genera and five families, were collected in the bee traps.

Research Findings

The study has not only documented a great diversity of native bees in synchrony with red clover bloom, but it has also found that seed set was uniform and high across four fields. Under current pollinator regimes, researchers believe red clover seed production is close to its maximum in Oregon.

Solutions for Pollination

"To sustain these high yields in Oregon, we must

• Conserve the habitat of bees,
  
• Use pesticides judiciously and
  
• Provide floral resources prior to red clover bloom

Oregon State University entomologist Sujaya Rao, one of the researchers on the study, concluded,  "Globally, where red clover seed is produced, similar studies are needed. If seed set is found to be well below the maximum, appropriate alternative options such as augmentation with commercial bumble bees could be considered."

Research is ongoing at Oregon State University to determine whether high yields can be achieved by native pollinators alone. If so, European honey bee hive rentals would not be required, and this could lead to more economic red clover seed production in Oregon.

The Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), founded in 1955, is an international scientific society comprised of 6,000+ members with its headquarters in Madison, WI. Members advance the discipline of crop science by acquiring and disseminating information about crop breeding and genetics; crop physiology; crop ecology, management, and quality; seed physiology, production, and technology; turfgrass science; forage and grazinglands; genomics, molecular genetics, and biotechnology; and biomedical and enhanced plants.

SOURCE:  ©2009 Newswise, Inc

The same generic lure can attract three species of mealybugs, which would cut costs for growers by allowing them to deploy a single pheromone trap rather than three.
 
The only scouting tool nurseries currently use for mealybugs is labor-intensive visual inspection of crops. Mealybugs are cryptic pests that conceal themselves in cracks and crevices of plant material. Without careful and regular sampling, mealybugs can reach economically damaging levels before growers realize plant-material infestation has occurred.
 
During the past two years, University of California, Riverside, researchers, including graduate student Rebeccah Waterworth, who is studying with UC Riverside entomologist Jocelyn Millar, has worked in several nurseries in Riverside and San Diego counties, deploying pheromone-baited traps to detect and follow citrus, longtailed and obscure mealybug populations.
 
"Fortunately our experiments determined that there is no major interference among these pheromones so a combination lure containing the pheromones of all three mealybug species can be used," Waterworth said.
 
The synthetic pheromone lures are deployed in sticky traps, where male mealybugs are then captured and counted. Some of the practical questions involved in developing pheromones for trapping mealybugs include the dose and longevity of the pheromone lures and how to monitor the seasonality of field populations of the three species.
 
Waterworth's results show longtailed mealybugs have clearly seasonal trends in their activity with populations increasing October through early spring and falling to low levels during the hotter summer months.
 
"The major peak in activity during the cooler winter months was counterintuitive, because most other insect pests show declines in their activity through fall and winter," Millar said. "The seasonality of this species is also apparent in other crops at this production location."
 
In addition, researchers are assessing the reproductive biology of the three mealybug species to determine whether pheromone-based control measures, such as mating disruption, are likely to be successful. They examined whether females can reproduce asexually as well as sexually, the number of times both males and females can mate, and details of their reproductive behaviors that might have implications for the use of pheromones for monitoring or controlling these insects.
 
"With citrus mealybug, we found that males and females can mate multiple times, as long as matings occur rapidly," Millar said. "However, one day after mating the first time, females become unreceptive to further mating attempts, suggesting that materials transferred to the female during mating have triggered changes in the female's physiology. Similar studies are in progress with the other two mealybug species."
 
The UC Integrated Pest Management Competitive Grants Program funded this study.