IPM-Lettuce

Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
helps growers select the best tool to manage
pests.

There are five steps in this strategy:

  1. IDENTIFY key pests and understand their
    lifecycles, including what naturally eats/kills
    them – natural enemies and climatic conditions.

  2. PREVENT pests from being in your crop or
    increasing in numbers to the point of causing
    economic damage. It may be that the pest is:
    not present at particular times of the year,
    unable to develop on specific varieties – best
    choice for disease prevention -, or is worse
    when crops are over or under watered or
    fertilised.

  3. MONITOR crop for pests and numbers.
    Pheromone traps help identify which of the two
    heliothis species is dominant.
    Yellow sticky traps help monitor thrips species
    and numbers. Prediction models should be
    used to indicate periods when pests or
    diseases are most likely to be present if
    available.

  4. CONTROL the pest when numbers are causing
    economic damage. This can involve: mechanical
    methods -chipping weeds or diseased plants -;
    biological methods – introduce a beneficial insect
    or use biological spray; or chemical
    methods.

  5. EVALUATE immediate effectiveness of direct
    controls and overall success of the program.
    Identify potential areas for improvement and
    develop a plan for future plantings.

Integrated Pest Management in Lettuce
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The factors most likely to affect pest & disease control decisions include:

  • Varietal susceptibility
  • Pests and diseases found 
  • Do weather conditions favour spread or development
  • Is disease transmitted by an insect vector
  • Numbers and source of the insect pest
  • Numbers and persity of beneficial insects
  • Crop vigour and stage of growth
  • Irrigation methods
  • Crop destination – export, domestic, fresh, processing
  • Effectiveness of control options.

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