INSECT PEST MANAGEMENT

DEPARTMENT OF CROP PROTECTION

UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI

GENERAL PRINCIPLES
Insect management: essential component of crop
production
Tactics include:
Get latest info on control, spray threshold n insecticide
resistance
Avoid periods of high insect activity e.g early planting
Agronomic practices that break insect cycles
Regular crop inspection for pests and natural enemies
Know critical stage of the crop
Spray if EIL detected
Use proper spray equipment

 Monitoring Regular scouting of the crop for insects

Critical to allow timely control of insects
Quality monitoring
Knowledge of likely pests/beneficials n lifecycles
Monitoring frequency n pest focus crop stages
Sampling technique size, parameters
Balancing random sampling with areas of
obvious damage
Record keeping indicates whether pest nos are
increasing, decreasing or constant
Accurate recording of results critical
Record sheets shd have types n nos of insects, size of
insects, crop stage.................
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Sampling methods for monitoring

Beat sheet
Effective for sampling catepillars, bugs, aphids,
mites
Use on pulse crops from budding onwards twice
weekly n once weekly during vegetative stage
Difficult to use when crops are wet
Visual checking
Sweep net sampling
Suction sampling
Traps pheromone, light.

Pest management/ Integrated pest management

IPM/PM uses knowledge of pest biology n habitats to
choose the best combination of common sense control
methods that will keep pests under control.
Definition A set of management activities that farmers
implement to mantain the intensity of potential pests at
levels below which they become pests without endangering
productivity and profitability of the farming system, the health
of th farm family n lifestock and th quality of the adjacent and
downstream environments Wightman, 1998
IPM is driven by economic concerns but ensures
sustainability of the enterprise n minimizes environmental n
health risks

IPM foundation principles and concepts

1st principle: Agro-ecosystem any management aaction
must have this in perspective
2nd principle: Pest economic levels Any pest can exist in
some tolerable levels
3rd : Maximize effectiveness of natural control factors
Features of agro-ecosystems that contibute to frequent
pest outbreaks are:
Experience frequent disturbances
Dominated by domesticated plants
Low species diversity
Uniformity in planting n harvesting at same time
Receive nutrients fron external sources.
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Economic principles
IPM realized that eradication of pest is not necessary to
ensure profitability
All crops can tolerate a certain amount of pest damage
without affecting yields
EIL lowest population density of a pest that will cause
economic damage; the amount of pest injury that will
justify the cost of control
Calculating EILs
Gain threshold = intervention cost per area/ value per
unit of crop
Estimate the units damaged per pest per area
Calculate EIL = gain threshold/loss per pest

Economic threshold
The pest dennsity at which control measures should be
implemented to prevent pest populations from reaching
EIL. Estimated to be 80% of EIL
Limitations:
Lack of mathematical definition of ET
Lack of valid EILs
Inability to make cost effective and accurate population
estimates
Inability to predict critical ET variables e.g market values
n population trends
Lack of simple means to inco-orporate externalities e.g
environmental costs into EILs
Subjective nature of EILs
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Agro-biological effects of chemical pesticides

Have a huge influence on how IPM is implemented
Pesticide resistance occurs due to natural genetic
variation in a population's susceptibility to pesticides
Development of resistance can be reduced by;
Low kill strategy to allow some susceptible
individuals to survive n breed
Switching life-stage target target the adult stage
as juveniles develop resistance faster
Limited spray window
Pesticide rejuvenation Add a compound to the
pesticide which blocks resistance mechanism
when th resistance mechanism is known
Diversification of control methods
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Pest resurgence and pest replacement

Pest resurgence occurs when a pest population that has

been suppressed rebounds to a higher population level than
before control

Pest replacement occurs when a minor or secondary pest

becomes an important pest due to control measures used
on target pest population

Main causes of these are:

Reduction in natural enemy populations

Control measure kills the natural enemy

Suppresses pest popln till natural enemy

starve

Affected pests consumed by natural enemies

thus secondary toxin accumulation kills the
natural enemy
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Natural enemy repelled and emigrate

 Hormoligosis
A phenomenon whereby pests show increased
vigour when exposed to sub-lethal doses of
pesticides
Occurs when control measure causes a change
in the physiology of the pest I.e metabolism
Shift in environment I.e nutritional change in
plant
Shift in pest behaviour I.e increased reproduction
Removal of competitors
If two pest species compete for the same food
source, selective removal of one species will
benefit the other species, resulting in pest
replacement.

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Tools, Methods and Tactics of IPM

Prevention

Good Agronomic Practices They encourage good

crop health and bolster crop resistance to pest

They include:

Spatial methods e.g Plant spacing, Intercropping,

Strip cropping, Cropping patterns I.e avoiding
planting alternate hosts near each other

Sequence-related methods e.g crop rotation,

multiple cropping, over seeding and under sowing

Planting materials and inputs e.g host-plant

resistance, disease free planting material, crop
genetic diversity, plant appropriate crops and
cultivars, fertilization, irrigation without overdoing

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Intervention
Chemical interventions
Synthetic pesticides, botanicals, inorganic pesticides,
semiochemicals, hormones
Biological interventions
Predators Catch and consume prey. Neuroptera,
Hemiptera, Diptera, Coleoptera, Arachnida, snakes,
birds, fish.... They are fairly generalists
Parasitoids Lays eggs in the pest host and the
resulting larvae consume and ultimately kill the host.
Mostly of the order Hymenoptera and Tachinid family of
Diptera. They are highly host specific
Pathogens Infect pest with fatal or debilitating
disease. Fungi, bacteria, nematodes, viruses. They are
very specific and are often referred to as biopesticides
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because way of application is similar

Categories of biological interventions

Natural biocontrol Methods that seek to conserve or
increase effectiveness of existing beneficials
Augmentation Releasing beneficials in order to help
existing ones control a pest problem
Inundative release- Releasing large numbers of
beneficilas to control pest problem
Seasonal inoculative release- Releasing a small number
of beneficials early in the season to give them head start
Classical biological control Introduction of a non-native
organism
Herbivores To control weeds

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Cultural interventions
Border crops, trap crops, mulching, pruning, altered
harvesting and planting dates, efficient harvesting
and storage, fertilization, irrigation, multiple cropping,
weeding.........
Considered to be labour intensive
Many are preventive
They affect pest populations in three ways:
Make agro-ecosystem unfavourable for the
pest
Displace the crop in time and space making
it unavailable to the pest
Make agro-ecosystem dangerous by
encouraging natural enemies 15

Physical interventions

Direct
Tillage
Barriers
Temperature
Water
Air

PS: Detailed explanations in the manual

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Genetic interventions

Host-plant resistance
Sterilization
Genetic displacement
Genetic improvement of beneficials.

Detailed explanations of the above are in the manual

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Regulation

Quarantine
Eradication
Control districts
Crop-free periods
Planting time restrictions
Enforced growing of particular cultivars
Compulsory sanitation measures
Regional diversification
Isolation

PS: READ THE DETAILED EXPLANATIONS IN THE MANUAL

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