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Impact Report

For plan Integrated Pest Management Systems (Bernalillo County)
Date October 14, 2009, 7:51 pm
For Objective Short-term Show short-term objectives
Impact Report Even though there is a strong and growing interest in taking a “green” approach to general lifestyle questions, the overuse of (and over-reliance on) chemical pesticide solutions results in a considerable amount of mis-applied toxic material in the landscape every year. The agent tries very diligently to teach an IPM approach to pest management in his dealings with the general public and the commercial operators. Agent works 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. Agent has 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, agent has become seen as a reliable expert to this industry. The Master Gardener trainings emphasize many of the same concepts. Interns are taught 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 agent developed and presented for the 2009 Master Gardener series that related to IPM include: Basic Soil Science; I.P.M. and Pesticide Safety; Plant Identification; Weeds of Albuquerque; and Basic Arboriculture. Agent fields 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 agent will take calls related to indoor pests as well. On the majority of these types of calls, agent is 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. Agent has 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, agent goes 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. These clients become some of Extension’s best advertisers, a situation which leads to ever more calls. For most of the clients, changes in knowledge occur at a very basic level. They come to agent 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. 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, agent spends much of his effort at the front end: pushing for good species selection, proper planting and irrigation, and ongoing monitoring coupled with patience.