PEST MANAGEMENT

OVERVIEW

Pest management is a way on managing insects, weeds and diseases through a combination of
cultural, physical, biological and chemical methods that are cost effective, environmentally
sound and socially acceptable. It also includes the responsible use of pesticides and plant biotech
solutions.

Objectives

At the end of this season, you are expected to:

1. Define pest management

2. Identify pests and diseases
3. Enumerate the methods of integrated pest control and management

Pest Management

Pest Management is a process of managing insects, weeds and diseases through a combination
of cultural, physical, biological and chemical methods that are cost effective, environmentally
sound and socially acceptable. It includes the responsible use of pesticides and plant biotech
solutions.

Pest are organisms that damage or interfere with desirable plants in the fields, orchards,
landscapes, or damage homes or other structures. A pest can be plant (weed), vertebrate (bird,
rodent or mammal), invertebrate (insect, tick, mite, or snail), nematode, pathogen (bacteria,
virus, or fungus) that are causes disease, or other unwanted organism that may harm water
quality animal life, or other parts of the ecosystem.

Both agricultural and horticultural crops are attacked by a wide variety of pests like
insects, mites, nematodes and gastropods mollusks. The damage they do results both from the
direct injury they cause to the plants and from the indirect consequences of the fungal, bacterial
or viral infections they transmit. Plants have their own defenses against these attacks but these
may be overwhelmed, especially in habitats where the plants are already stressed, or where the
pests have been accidentally introduced and may have no natural enemies. The pests affecting
trees are predominantly insects, and many of these have also been introduced inadvertently and
lack natural enemies, and some have transmitted novel fungal diseases with devastating results.
Humans have traditionally attempted to control the agricultural and forestry pests by the use of
pesticides; however, they have gradually come to appreciate that many of these have unwanted
consequences for the environment, and have tried to substitute.
 I.1 Type of Pests

Integrated Pest Management strategies with biological control.

1. Pathogens – are organisms, mostly microorganisms, which cause diseases or

abnormalities in susceptible plants under certain environmental conditions.

Classification of Pathogens

a. Fungi – produce thread-like growths as hyphae and spores

by which spread.

b. Bacteria – microscopic living organisms, usually one-celled, that Fungi

can be found everywhere. They can be dangerous, such as when
they can cause infection, or beneficial, as in the process of
fermentation (such as in wine) and that of decomposition.

c. Viruses – are complex molecules that infect, multiply, mutate

and otherwise act like living organisms in plants.

d. Nematodes – are small thread-like roundworms occurring in the Bacteria

soil and various plant parts which interfere with the normal functioning
of the plant. Mycoplasmas are tiny organisms with no rigid wall. They are bigger than
virus but smaller than bacteria and under the electron microscope, as elongated branching
filaments which later breaks into cells.

Virus Nematodes

2. Destructive Insects and Mites - Insects and mites are members of the arthropod family
that reduce the area for photosynthesis and the quality of the produce by the presence or
damage or injury. They either tear or eat or portions of plant (chewing insects), such as
the larval stages of the butterflies and moths or pierce and suck the cell sap.
 Chewing insects

Caterpillars Grasshopper Beetle

Sucking Insects

Scale and Thrips Mealy bugs Leafhoppers

3. Weeds are plants that are considered unwanted

and out of placed plants. They usually germinate
and grow fast, have deep root systems and resistant
to most diseases and pests. Weeds are competing
for light, nutrients and moisture. In addition, they
may also serve as alternative hosts for insects and
diseases.

Cropping in the tropics is characterized

by the ever-present need for weeding. Due to water
competition, weeds control is of great importance
during the dry months in rained fed areas. Weeds
frequently consume more water to form a gram dry
matter than cultivated plants Mutha (Cyperus rotundus) one
of the worst weeds

Example of common weeds:

Aguingay (Rottboella exaltata) Kamo-kamotehan (Ipomoea triloba)

 Alikbangon (Commelina benghalensis) Spindle top (Cleome nutidosperma)

4. Vertebrate Pest - Any pest in tropical area includes rodents, birds, wild and sometimes domestic
animals. They are especially destructive to root crops and seed crops. In coconuts, they start
eating the fruits at the button stage and as the fruits grow, bigger, they grow the lateral sides of the
nuts. The damage they cause on a nut decreases with age.

Examples:

Rat (rottus mindanensis) Birds (Aves) Chicken (gallus gallus)

Factors Affecting Pest Incidence

1. Nutritional/Physiological condition of plants - nutrition contributes to resistance or

susceptibility of plants. Application of large amount of nitrogen results in succulent
plants which pest can be attack. However, higher N availability to plants can also mark
viral infection or cause a plant to react with vigor against the virus. Water- Drought can
developed thick cuticles which make these leaves unattractive to pest. Limited water
supply can wilt the leaves and fruits that may minimized the occurrence of leaf diseases.

2. Climate- The macro and micro climate of the area will also affect the incidence,
population dynamics and persistence of the pest and diseases. The various pest’s life’s
cycles are also closely interrelated to climate changes. The virulence of a particular
organism is sometimes better expressed under certain temperature conditions as in mosaic
of squash.

3. Other organisms. Pests have their particular economic levels. It is of great concern to
farmers, scientists when the level of pest incidence limits profit abilities and other
 economics parameters, otherwise, it poses very little problem. The advent of cropping in
large scales, however, is a major ecological change.
Clearing of an area provides a disturbance and an imbalance to the pest
population and when a single crop of greater density is planted, there is further
imbalance. This ecological situation contributes to the problem of pests therefore pest
management should be an integral part of ecological study.

4. Introduction of new crops or new pests. A crop that is newly introduced in a cropping
area may have little or no resistance to organisms already present in the area since the
introduced crop may have never been exposed to that particular pest. Insects, pathogens,
mammals or birds may also be introduced in a cropping area and become the major pest
species. If the hosts lack the natural resistance to these new pests, the pest population
may increase to outbreak levels.

I. 2 Methods of Integrated Pest

Control and Management

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is also known as

integrated pest control is a broad - based approach that
integrates practices for economic control of pests. IPM
aims to suppress pest populations below the economic
injury level.

Methods of IPM

1. Cultural control method is a method of crop

protection using careful timing and a combination
of agronomic practices to make the environment
less favorable for the increase of certain pests or
diseases.
- Cultural control practices may include
crop rotation, tillage, timing of planting and
harvesting, cover crops, choice of plant cultivar,
competition, fertilizer or irrigation practices,
sanitation, and soil solarization.

2. Physical control method refers to mechanical or hand

controls where the pest is actually attacked and
destroyed. Physical controls are used mostly in weed
control. Tillage, fire, removal by hand, grazing and
mowing is all used to destroy weeds and prevent
reproduction. Some insects may also be destroyed by
tillage, which destroys their eggs or overwinter
 stages of growth. Weeds are not controlled through a
single operation.

3. Biological control method is a method of controlling

pests such as insects, mites, weeds and plant diseases
using other organisms. It relies on predation,
parasitism, herbivory, or other natural mechanisms,
but typically, also involves an active human
management role. It can be an important
component of integrated pest management (IPM)
programs.

Three (3) basic strategies for biological pest control:

a. classical (importation), where a natural enemy of a pest is introduced in the hope

of achieving control;
b. inductive (augmentation), in which a large population of natural enemies are
administered for quick pest control;
c. inoculative (conservation), in which measures are taken to maintain natural
enemies through regular reestablishment.

Natural enemies of insect pests, also known as biological control agents, include
predators, parasitoids, pathogens, and competitors. Biological control agents of plant
diseases are most often referred to as antagonists. Biological control agents of weeds
include seed predators, herbivores, and plant pathogens. Biological control can have side-
effects on biodiversity through attacks on non-target species by any of the same
mechanisms, especially when a species is introduced without a thorough understanding of
the possible consequences.

4. Chemical control Method it is the way of

controlling pest using of pesticides. Using
the right and needed combination of chemicals
and with the right approaches are more
effective, long-term control in controlling pest.
Pesticides are selected and applied in a way that
minimizes their possible harm to people, nontarget organisms, and the environment.
Chemicals are used when all other controls are not applicable in controlling the pest.

SUMMARY

To be successful in farming, pest management is one of the important factors to be

considered. Different control measures can be applied to crops only that farmers will decide what
control measures to be used to prevent losses. But before applying those control measures, they
have to identify the pest and to what extent of infestation. There are four control measures that
can be applied to crops namely; Cultural, Physical, Biological and Chemical control methods.
References
Handbook of Pesticide Toxicology (Second Edition), 2001
OSEA, J.A. Compilation of Lectures in Crop Science 2. Practices in Crop Production.