Note: This site is for reviewing legacy plan of work data from 2007-2011. If you are looking for the current plan of work interface, visit pow.nmsu.edu.

Impact Report

For plan Integrated Pest Management Systems (Bernalillo County)
Date October 14, 2008, 3:34 pm
For Objective Short-term Show short-term objectives
Impact Report Homeowners and commercial properties use a tremendous amount of pesticide chemistry every year. Due to several factors, including lack of specific knowledge and a "more is better" philosophy, these uses account for a large proportion of mis-applied pesticides. People quickly reach for any number of pesticide products at the first sign of landscape problems (e.g. dead areas in turf lead to application of fungicides, prior to confirmation that a fungal problem exists and without correction of underlying environmental conditions allowing fungal growth to occur). I work with a number of local and regional landscape maintenance firms and public institutions, helping them identify damaging insects and diseases, and helping them understand the underlying environmental conditions that may be contributing to the severity of expression. I have worked with TruGreen Chemlawn, Waterwise Landscapes, Tree Sculptors, National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque BioPark, Scientific Tree Care, Craig Pest Control, Expo New Mexico, HeadsUp Landscaping, City of Albuquerque Parks Division, Arca Organics, A-Ron’s Pest Control, Divine Earth Aesthetic Pruning, Baca’s Trees, and many, many others. Consultations usually result in accurate identification of casual organisms and/or conditions, and recommendations to alleviate conditions and control organisms. Agent has not developed formal evaluation document for these people to use to provide feedback, but judging from the number of repeat callers and the number of referred callers, I have become seen as a reliable expert to this industry. In the Master Gardener trainings, I emphasize some of the same concepts. We teach interns about good plant selection, appropriate care, and the intricacies involved in accurately identifying organisms that may or may not be pests. We teach them to recommend holistic approaches to landscape problems, which may or may not involve the use of pesticide materials. This season, our class numbered almost sixty new interns. We administer a pre- and post-class knowledge survey, and see an average increase in knowledge, as captured by the survey, from 64% correct to 81% correct. As many of these questions deal with the underlying factors affecting pest pressures, as well as with common pests themselves, it gives up a good indication that our training is working well to inform the Master Gardeners, who in turn communicate with thousands of area residents every year. Presentations that I developed and presented for the 2008 Master Gardener series that related to IPM include: Albuquerque Soils; What to do About Weeds; Common Weeds of the Albuquerque Area; Pests: Symptoms to Causes; Diseases: Symptoms to Causes; I.P.M.: Basic Principles and Concepts for Master Gardeners; and Master Gardener Diagnostic Process. Typical scores on Speaker Evaluation forms are 9 or 10 out of 10 in areas such as Scope, Usefulness, Organization, Content, Met Expectations. Typical answers to the question (from same Speaker Evaluation form), “What did you like most about the presentation and why?” include: “The speakers knowledge and enthusiasm + his ability to convey information clearly”, “Presenter is engaging and helpful; followed the written material”, “A lot of things I didn’t know”, “At appropriate level with good explanation of terminology”, “Content, enthusiasm made it even more interesting, he took questions comfortably and answered confidently”, “Energy, enthusiasm, knowledge, anecdotes, and humor – Great?!”, “Joran is a great speaker, mixing fact and anecdotes well”, “Very, very informative”. I also field from five to fifteen calls per day, on average, during the busy season (April through August). Of these, a good number have to do with pest control questions. These are mostly landscape issues, but I will take calls related to indoor pests as well. On the majority of these types of calls, I am able to make an accurate diagnosis of the problem, and suggest both fundamental corrections to the plants’ environment, and where appropriate, chemical control recommendations. Often these latter fall along the line of NOT using a given chemical or pest service, as the use would not be appropriate. I have saved homeowners many thousands of dollars in un-necessary pesticide applications, and reduced environmental contamination due to pesticide overuse in the process. In addition to calls and walk-in clients, I go out on field visits quite frequently. Many of these site visits are to individual homeowners, but also include commercial and institutional sites. While this takes some time per client, it also provides the client with the absolute best information I can, and I learn more in the process. These clients become some of Extension’s best advertisers, a situation which leads to ever more calls. A typical thank-you note from one of these clients reads as follows: “Sept 19, 2007; Dear Horticulture Agent Viers, This note is to thank you for your encyclopedic insight/research into recent pests in my new landscape. I had heard you were very helpful, and I completely concur! What a great service you offer, and a terrific example of our tax dollars at work! I hope I can contact you again if I have creatures I can’t identify. I going to look into the book you recommended and maybe that will help me stay out of your hair. Thank you again for your generous time and help. Barb Rowe, Bernalillo County Resident”. For most of my clients, changes in knowledge occur at a very basic level. They come to me knowing very little about a situation, or knowing incorrect information. The new knowledge they go away with should cause many changes in their behavior as it relates to pest control. For some, this change is seen in how they view arthropods in the environment in general (with a strong move away from, “if it moves, it’s bad and must be killed”); for others, it is new information on an existing problem that expands their ability to take actions that will have the desired results. With some of the more experienced clients, be they landscape professionals or life-long gardeners, changes are more subtle and often consist of fitting in a missing piece of the puzzle. These clients would not report as dramatic a change in knowledge or behavior, but the changes they do make certainly result in positive impacts in their efforts. In 2008, agent initiated a project consulting a condo owners association on their common landscape pest control program, after initial contact from one member who was going through chemotherapy treatment for cancer, and who in part because of this was concerned about the pest control approach that had been used (quarterly wholesale spraying of the landscape with broad-spectrum insecticides). Through several meetings, agent was able to initiate an innovative project working with the local office of a national chain not known for taking an IPM approach. By meeting with one of their staff on a monthly basis and actually walking the property to monitor conditions, agent has been able to save the owners considerable money, apply less pesticide to the environment, and target some specific problems at an appropriate time, while also teaching the landscape care staff person more about landscape pest issues. As this person is their lead “diagnostician”, her education during these visits is played out in landscapes across the county. Money saved on pesticide application is then being used to take care of other landscape issues, such as appropriate and timely tree pruning. Many people still consider IPM to be a way to set up a spray program. Knowing that applying control materials is the last resort in a good IPM approach, I spend much of my effort at the front end: pushing for good species selection, proper planting and irrigation, and ongoing monitoring coupled with patience. This year, I again presented a Turf IPM topic at an Ornamental and Turf Pest Control workshop organized by colleagues, as I have done for the last few years.