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- New York Program Delivers
Affordable IPM Solutions
- By Karen Gentry
Associate Editor
- Finding cost effective tools for vegetable growers that pose minimal risks to the environment and human health are the goals of the New York State (NYS) IPM program. A microscopic wasp called trichogramma ostriniae is an example.
Releasing of microscopic wasps has proven to be a potent weapon in fighting the European corn borer in sweet corn, according to Mike Hoffmann, an associate professor in the Department of Entomology at Cornell University and director of the NYS IPM program.
“We have been working with tiny wasps the size of a period,” said Hoffmann. Hoffmann said they have released these wasps when the sweet corn is at the knee high stage. He said a one-time release of 30,000 wasps per acre has proven effective in helping suppress infestations. “We are so impressed with this species that we call it the “Ghengis Khan’ of wasps,” he said.
The wasps that are released seek the eggs of the European corn borer and insert their eggs into the eggs of the corn borer. The wasp eggs hatch inside the borer egg, develop into larvae that eat the developing borer and ultimately emerge as wasps to start the cycle over again, according to Hoffmann. There is enough food in each borer egg to produce up to three wasps, so they reproduce and increase in number as the season progresses.
“They can kill up to 100% of corn borer eggs in some fields,” said Hoffmann. Damage by the pest is reduced by half, he said.
“It’s relatively cheap. It costs less than $10 per acre to make that release, and that includes the cost of the wasps, packaging and putting them into the field,” Hoffmann said. He said that a commercial insectary will be rearing this species starting in 2002, so the wasps will be available for purchase.
For more than two decades Hoffmann has helped develop alternative management strategies for vegetable insect pests, such as the corn borer and cucumber beetle. Hoffmann has been known to share his enthusiasm about natural enemies and IPM with others. He is the co-author of “Natural Enemies of Vegetable Insect Pests” and “Integrated Pest Management for Onions.”
“Mike’s made a difference in Extension staff’s attitude towards biological control,” said Curt Petzoldt, the vegetable IPM coordinator for the New York State IPM program.
Petzoldt recently received a grant totaling more than $500,000 from USDA. The grant will be used to develop reduced risk management strategies for cucurbits (see article on right). Trials will include cucurbits grown organically, cucurbits with standard practices and cucurbits with IPM practices and with the next wave of IPM practices, according to Hoffmann.
Hoffmann, a vegetable entomologist who has been with Cornell University since 1990, became the second director the NYS IPM program, a position he has held since November 1999. He oversees 24 staff members and keeps tabs on many research and Extension projects funded by the program. His position is 75% IPM director and 25% entomologist.
The IPM program works cooperatively with Cornell Cooperative Extension staff and faculty. The program awards approximately 50 grants to research and Extension projects. His responsibilities also include the IPM needs of the urban sector. “Having IPM activities in both the farm and non-farm arena positions us so that we can help consumers better understand what agriculture is all about and what it takes to get high quality vegetables to the market. We can also point out that there is a lot of pest management in the urban sector and these discussions can even out the playing field when it comes to issues related to pesticide use,” Hoffmann said.
Prior to coming to Cornell, Hoffmann was a staff research associate at the University of California (UC). He earned of Ph.D. in entomology from UC-Davis, a master’s degree from the University of Arizona and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin.
New York vegetable growers are among the top 10 producers of 12 different vegetable crops. Steve Reiners, Petzoldt and Hoffmann have put together the Web-based “Integrated Crop and Pest Management Guidelines for Commercial Vegetable Production” available at www.nysaes.cornell.edu/recommends. The site is updated frequently and includes information on how to grow and produce vegetables as well as how to use the latest biological, cultural, physical, and chemical controls for pests.
The NYS IPM program funds a variety of projects related to education, monitoring, forecasting, economic thresholds, biological control and pest biology. Some of these projects include: scouting and tolerant cultivars for the effective management of leaf blight in carrots; IPM pepper demonstrations; pheromone trap network for fresh and processing sweet corn; comparison of weed suppression in no-till and conventionally tilled pumpkin systems; insecticide and biological control tactics for sweet corn; evaluation of harpin for the control of insect-vectored bacterial wilt of pumpkin; flea beetle and Stewart’s wilt in sweet corn in New York and managing Stewart’s wilt with seed treatments and variety selection.
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