2013 Highlights: UC IPM Annual Report

UC IPM extends IPM with agricultural and urban training

For agricultural growers and PCAs

Lucia Varela. (Photo by Hawkes Photography.)

• Through a series of hands-on workshops, UC IPM Advisor Lucia Varela and UCCE Viticulture Advisor Monica Cooper trained 80 pest control advisers and vineyard managers to identify male grape mealybugs and vine mealybugs caught in pheromone traps. Since management is tailored for the specific mealybug, identification is important for the best control.
• UC IPM Advisor Shimat Joseph, with UCCE Advisor Mark Bolda and the California Strawberry Commission, trained 191 ranch managers, field workers, PCAs, and growers to identify light brown apple moth and taught them about moth biology. Correct identification is important for management of the moth, which is a quarantine pest. Only fruit free of this pest can be moved out of quarantine areas.

For urban and community IPM

• Seventy-five public school staff members now understand that improving turf care can reduce the use of pesticides and that managing water avoids runoff and improves water quality. UC IPM Advisor Cheryl Wilen, along with the Department of Pesticide Regulation staff and other UCCE advisors and specialists, conducted hands-on trainings throughout California. School staff members learned to measure irrigation output, soil sampling, and weed identification and management.
• UC IPM Advisor Andrew Sutherland is spreading the word on best practices for prevention and early detection of invasive pests in urban landscapes, such as Asian citrus psyllid and brown marmorated stink bug. Hands-on workshops were attended by 250 arborists, landscape managers, Master Gardeners, and California Department of Food and Agriculture biologists. Attendees learned about the routes of introduction, identification, biology, and management of invasive pests. Sutherland anticipates that this knowledge will increase public cooperation to help prevent establishment or, if invasive pests are found, in the management efforts.
• Solarization expert and UC IPM Advisor Jim Stapleton trained Master Gardeners about using soil solarization to manage pests in small-scale urban gardens and farms. Stapleton conducted train-the-trainer sessions in 7 counties for 210 Master Gardeners.