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Southeast Region IPM Collaboration A Success - March 1998
March 17, 1998
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA -- Pennsylvania’s Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program is gaining in popularity in part due to the Southeast region’s innovative research and implementation.
The Southeast group has developed a new model for instituting IPM in the region’s nurseries, schools, public gardens, and residential and commercial landscapes throughout the greater Philadelphia area.
Traditionally, an IPM program involves researchers at Land Grant universities and other institutions investigating crop and pest systems and developing new pest management methods. The Cooperative Extension system distributes the information to producers and teaches them the new methods.
However, the Southeast group has put a twist on tradition, so that producers and consultants are integrally involved in planning and carrying out the research. The work is organized and facilitated by Extension, with advice and oversight provided by Penn State University researchers.
The Research Group draws membership from the private sector including nurserymen, landscapers, arborists, and public and commercial ground managers from eight counties in Pennsylvania and one in Delaware. Its membership also includes the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and Penn State University researchers.
Penn State Cooperative Extension Agents Dave Suchanic and Emelie Swackhamer along with Extension Specialist Susan Barton of Delaware Cooperative Extension serve as coordinators. Their duties includes organizing data collections, producing newsletters and organizing meetings.
With budget challenges, Suchanic points out that the group is making the best with what they have available. For example, the group’s weather equipment has been cost-shared among growers and the Penn State Cooperative Extension, so they are adequately equipped and saving money. "In general, we’re doing some pretty good work on a shoestring budget," comments Suchanic.
In addition, the group is advised by the Penn State faculty, so experimental designs and data analysis are correct. Suchanic states, "Our research is planned by the people who will use the results, so we are pretty sure to address the right problems. And with Penn State behind us, we can be confident our group is addressing the problems correctly."
The organization’s first endeavor is the ability to predict key plant and pest events. By making weather, plant development and pest observations, they hope to predict the timing and severity of pest outbreaks. Then control measures, such as pesticides, can be used only when necessary.
The Southeast group has also been making strides in education by offering in-depth workshops on specific pests, a weekly bulletin, pest "walks," biannual IPM conferences, consumer IPM fact sheets and an upcoming site on the Internet.
The results of the program are impressive. For example, members are not practicing routine, prophylactic pesticide spraying anymore--now all spray only as needed. In addition, most of the on-site participants have instituted full-blown IPM programs. "The Southeast Pennsylvania IPM group has created a new model of cooperation among the public and private sectors for others to follow," Suchanic concludes.
IPM is an approach to managing pests such as insects, diseases, weeds and animals by integrating appropriate physical, biological and chemical tactics that are safe, profitable and environmentally compatible. The Pennsylvania IPM program is a collaboration between Penn State and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture aimed at promoting integrated pest management in both agricultural and nonagricultural situations.