Extension and Applied Research Professional Goals
In the short term, my career goals with respect to implementing Integrated Pest Management (IPM) of insect and mite pests include the development of programs to enhance the profitability and efficiency of vegetable crop production and maintenance in Wisconsin by embracing relevant emerging technologies while also considering sustainability and environmentally compatible practices. To meet this responsibility, my extension and research responsibilities integrate basic studies on the biology, ecology and behavior of vegetable insect pests and pathogens with applied studies utilizing both novel and traditional pest management approaches. My extension responsibilities include the delivery of the most current crop protection information to producers, extension agents, and crop consultants at the levels of state, regional, and national meetings. This information would describe ecologically-based pest management concepts, the importance of correct pest identification, insect pest life systems, most appropriate scouting and sampling technologies, incorporating both conventional and alternative pest management tactics.
To reach this goal of offering profitable and sustainable solutions to current and emerging pest problems, it is essential that the IPM practitioner recognize that the types of pest problems faced by vegetable crop pest managers in Wisconsin are now becoming quite similar to the problems faced among producers across this country in light of the Food Quality Protection Act, 1996. Major changes in the arsenal of pest management tactics are impacting the way(s) in which insect pest populations can be controlled. As a result, many biorational insect control products are replacing the conventional, broad-spectrum control agents that have been the mainstay of crop protection programs for decades. The narrow spectrum of activity that characterizes these new materials provides greater opportunity for natural controls to reach their full potential. However, it also allows populations of pest species, formerly controlled by applications of broad-spectrum pesticides, to reach damaging levels. The effective, economical use of these newer materials requires more information and greater sophistication. The new materials are expensive and their use must be precisely timed and appropriately targeted against the correct pest species.
Now and in the future pest managers must realize that managing pests is just one aspect of a much larger systems approach. Management systems of the future must recognize the challenges faced by agricultural producers and the agricultural infrastructure in which pest management must fit. They must be much more economical, practical and logistically feasible. To meet these needs now and in the future, the development of pest management approaches will require knowledge of the fundamental biology, behavior, and ecology of the pest and its natural enemies. This information can then be used to characterize the most efficient strategy for minimizing pest population oscillations, for managing the onset of resistance, conserving natural enemy populations, predicting spatial and temporal patterns of pest movement, and correctly determining the rates and timing of potential biocontrol amendments.