Optimizing insecticide use in integrated management of fruit insect pests

Publication date: 09/09/2019
Extent: 46 pages

Contributions by: Claudio Ioriatti and Gino Angeli, Fondazione Edmund Mach, Italy; Greg Krawczyk, The Pennsylvania State University, USA; and Carlo Duso, University of Padova, Italy

Chapter synopsis: The integrated pest management approach was conceived to reduce grower reliance on pesticides by combining and optimizing pesticide use with biological, physical and agronomical control tools. Natural enemies are an essential component of the agroecosystem and play a valuable role in controlling insect pests in fruit orchards. Growers need to understand how to protect them from harmful agronomic practices and how these natural allies could be integrated with other control tools. This chapter describes old and new monitoring tools, robust monitoring protocols available for estimating abundance of pest and beneficial insects, use of available phenology models to predict crucial future events important for pest management (e.g. the use of precise timing for surveillance) and pest control. The chapter includes three detailed case studies of common fruit pests as examples of how optimization of insecticide applications could be implemented within a framework of an integrated management of fruit insect pests. Finally, the chapter looks ahead to future research trends in this area.

DOI: 10.19103/AS.2019.0046.28