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.
Integrated Pest Management Systems
Plan Goals
Program specialist(s) and County Extension staff will regularly disseminate basic information on IPM, entomology & the various arthropods impacting New Mexico producers and consumers.
Impact Reports
IPM Telephone Consultations: Many of the clientele telephone the office and consult this agent on a number of topics. Usual protocol is to ask many questions to determine if they have in fact enough data to make a valid recommendation. If not, then often times a site or home visit will be made to help solve the problem. Most questions are very basic in nature and can be solved over the telephone. There were 1344 questions asked of this agent this year, with 192 concerning 4-H and Youth programs. The rest were agriculture, horticulture and livestock related concerning Termites, Bees, Ticks, Ants, Insects in general, Bed bugs, Plant diseases, Weeds, Insecticides, Herbicides, Pigeons, Swallows, Migratory and protected species birds, Cats, Dogs, Gophers, Pack Rats, Squirrels, Pastures, Ponds & pond scum, Alfalfa, Bats & Bat houses and many more. Resource based information and NMSU or other approved literature was provided to the clientele by mail. Most of the clientele were receptive to the information and I am fairly certain that at least 80% used the information in their particular situations.
Agricultural IPM Field Visits: Clientele often telephone the Extension Office and have crop, garden, pest, weed problems that require a site or field visit to assess the problem. Below are summaries of some of those site visits:
Vera Cline – was building a duck pond and wanted to know if any poisonous weeds were in that area. I identified Silverleaf NIghtshade and recommended she clean all the dead plants and the pods laying on the ground. Then in the spring continue to hoe the plants to avoid chemical usage in the duck pond area.
Lee & Sandy Liggett - Sandia Park, NM – needed pastures evaluated for weeds for their Alpacas. Several were identified – Buffalo grass, Broom Snakeweed, Flixweed, Kochia, Foxtail Barley, Scarlet Mallow, White Horehound, Spurge, and Western Sticktight. There were not enough of any noxious weeds to cause harm to the Alpacas.
Walter & Daniel Bracken – South Valley - needed weeds identified in an alfalfa field. I identified Shepherd’s Purse mustard weed and consulted Jamshid Ashigh, NMSU Weed specialist. He sent Mr. Bracken a recommendation of some of the ag. chemicals that might work in that scenario.
Andrew Stone – had diseased tomatoes in his garden. There were a total of 40 tomato plants in the garden. Curly top was evident, but upon sending samples to NMSU Plant Pathologist, Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus was also identified. Recommended removing diseased plants and trying to control thrips as preventative methods to prevent the spread of the diseases.
Dianne Bresson – had pesticide damage in her yard resulting from a neighbor’s using stump removal chemicals. I sent samples to NMSU Plant Pathology to verify that the damage was not due to any diseases, thus leaving the chemical application as the culprit. Also gave the client the number of NMDA Pesticide Division in Albuquerque. As it was discovered, a landscape maintenance firm had applied the chemicals without having a Commercial Applicator’s License. The company had to clean up the chemicals and replant new plants.
Carla Clark – Raises dwarf goats (Pygmy) and wanted the pasture evaluated. Prostate Spurge was present in small quantities, and lambsquarter. The rest of the pasture was grass in good condition.
Ed Wilder-had two very old horses die about a month apart. They were on a pasture, so I went and evaluated the pasture. Twenty six different varieties of plants were identified, but no toxic plants in enough quantities to cause death. The pasture was mostly good grasses and the only plants to have been grazed were grasses.
Vera Cline – was building a duck pond and wanted to know if any poisonous weeds were in that area. I identified Silverleaf NIghtshade and recommended she clean all the dead plants and the pods laying on the ground. Then in the spring continue to hoe the plants to avoid chemical usage in the duck pond area.
Lee & Sandy Liggett - Sandia Park, NM – needed pastures evaluated for weeds for their Alpacas. Several were identified – Buffalo grass, Broom Snakeweed, Flixweed, Kochia, Foxtail Barley, Scarlet Mallow, White Horehound, Spurge, and Western Sticktight. There were not enough of any noxious weeds to cause harm to the Alpacas.
Walter & Daniel Bracken – South Valley - needed weeds identified in an alfalfa field. I identified Shepherd’s Purse mustard weed and consulted Jamshid Ashigh, NMSU Weed specialist. He sent Mr. Bracken a recommendation of some of the ag. chemicals that might work in that scenario.
Andrew Stone – had diseased tomatoes in his garden. There were a total of 40 tomato plants in the garden. Curly top was evident, but upon sending samples to NMSU Plant Pathologist, Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus was also identified. Recommended removing diseased plants and trying to control thrips as preventative methods to prevent the spread of the diseases.
Dianne Bresson – had pesticide damage in her yard resulting from a neighbor’s using stump removal chemicals. I sent samples to NMSU Plant Pathology to verify that the damage was not due to any diseases, thus leaving the chemical application as the culprit. Also gave the client the number of NMDA Pesticide Division in Albuquerque. As it was discovered, a landscape maintenance firm had applied the chemicals without having a Commercial Applicator’s License. The company had to clean up the chemicals and replant new plants.
Carla Clark – Raises dwarf goats (Pygmy) and wanted the pasture evaluated. Prostate Spurge was present in small quantities, and lambsquarter. The rest of the pasture was grass in good condition.
Ed Wilder-had two very old horses die about a month apart. They were on a pasture, so I went and evaluated the pasture. Twenty six different varieties of plants were identified, but no toxic plants in enough quantities to cause death. The pasture was mostly good grasses and the only plants to have been grazed were grasses.
Ornamental, Turf, & Agriculture CEU Workshop 2008: There is an annual requirement to provide Continuing Education Unit (CEU) training and NMDA certification to Ornamental, Turf and Agricultural pesticide license holders. The training was directed to serve 150 license holders whose licenses expire December 31st each year. This year, the license year changed to start January 1st, and all renewals will be due by December 31st each year for all categories.
Planning was accomplished by telephone with Valencia and Sandoval County Extension Agents and an Albuquerque NMDA Pesticide staff member. The agent coordinated the rental and use of the 4-H Center facility, advertising brochures, promoted via mail and e-mail. Also contacted NMSU specialists and speakers to present topics and identify AV and handout needs. Contacted NMDA to award CEU’s from the program. We collected the pre-registrations and registrations at this office utilizing the secretarial staff. This secretarial staff coordinated the collection of purchase orders and payments since this was a fee workshop.
The workshop had 60 participants who qualified to re-certify their NMDA pesticide licenses.
Formal evaluation revealed that 79% of the participants considered the information and methods of presentation to be above average. The evaluation instrument was a scale of 5 with 5 being the highest. (5 received 50% of the rating).
Topics requested for 2009 were Safe Pesticides around aquatic environments, more IPM techniques, Target (spot) spraying, pruning and watering, more about beneficial insects and backflow devices.
Agencies and businesses who participated were: NMSU Specialist / Ag Science Centers, BIA, USDA Forest Service, City of Portales, City of Albuquerque Parks & Recreation, UNM Physical Plant, City of Clovis, Gallup-McKinley County School District, and Albuquerque Bio Park & Botanic Gardens.
Planning was accomplished by telephone with Valencia and Sandoval County Extension Agents and an Albuquerque NMDA Pesticide staff member. The agent coordinated the rental and use of the 4-H Center facility, advertising brochures, promoted via mail and e-mail. Also contacted NMSU specialists and speakers to present topics and identify AV and handout needs. Contacted NMDA to award CEU’s from the program. We collected the pre-registrations and registrations at this office utilizing the secretarial staff. This secretarial staff coordinated the collection of purchase orders and payments since this was a fee workshop.
The workshop had 60 participants who qualified to re-certify their NMDA pesticide licenses.
Formal evaluation revealed that 79% of the participants considered the information and methods of presentation to be above average. The evaluation instrument was a scale of 5 with 5 being the highest. (5 received 50% of the rating).
Topics requested for 2009 were Safe Pesticides around aquatic environments, more IPM techniques, Target (spot) spraying, pruning and watering, more about beneficial insects and backflow devices.
Agencies and businesses who participated were: NMSU Specialist / Ag Science Centers, BIA, USDA Forest Service, City of Portales, City of Albuquerque Parks & Recreation, UNM Physical Plant, City of Clovis, Gallup-McKinley County School District, and Albuquerque Bio Park & Botanic Gardens.
Bernalillo County 2008 Grounds Maintenance CEU Workshop: The Bernalillo County Grounds Maintenance workshop was conducted to provide 23 local Bernalillo County Grounds Maintenance applicators four credit units of training for them to re-certify and renew NMDA Public Applicator pesticide licenses.
The four hour program was designed to provide the training required and prior approval and certificates were obtained from NMDA, the regulating agency. The class designed was one hour each on the following topics: Pesticide labels (2 hours), and one hour each on Calibration & Small animal damage control. The workshop was coordinated with the grounds maintenance crew of 23 and also advertised via NMSU e-mail system.
Twenty-three grounds maintenance crew members attended and saved the County over $1,000 of registration fees had they attended other workshops. The crew members recertified with the NMDA pesticide division, which is a condition of their employment.
Ray Balduini, the field supervisor thanked me for presenting the workshop at a time of year that the maintenance was “slower” and the crews needed the training to keep their employment. He estimated the annual salaries from these 31 workers was over $750,000 which contributes to the local economy.
The four hour program was designed to provide the training required and prior approval and certificates were obtained from NMDA, the regulating agency. The class designed was one hour each on the following topics: Pesticide labels (2 hours), and one hour each on Calibration & Small animal damage control. The workshop was coordinated with the grounds maintenance crew of 23 and also advertised via NMSU e-mail system.
Twenty-three grounds maintenance crew members attended and saved the County over $1,000 of registration fees had they attended other workshops. The crew members recertified with the NMDA pesticide division, which is a condition of their employment.
Ray Balduini, the field supervisor thanked me for presenting the workshop at a time of year that the maintenance was “slower” and the crews needed the training to keep their employment. He estimated the annual salaries from these 31 workers was over $750,000 which contributes to the local economy.
Master Gardener Pesticide Training 2008: The Bernalillo County Extension Agent was requested to provide the basic information about homeowner use pesticides to the Bernalillo County Master Gardeners. Since the master gardeners often are asked questions about pesticide use, it was important to stress pesticides labels and safety.
The planning was for a one hour class concerning pesticides labels and safety. The agent stressed the different parts of the label, and how to use products according to the label. Another important concept conveyed to the Master Gardeners was that the label is a Federal Legal Document. The class could be summarized in three words: READ THE LABEL! 100 Master Gardeners recieved the training.
The planning was for a one hour class concerning pesticides labels and safety. The agent stressed the different parts of the label, and how to use products according to the label. Another important concept conveyed to the Master Gardeners was that the label is a Federal Legal Document. The class could be summarized in three words: READ THE LABEL! 100 Master Gardeners recieved the training.