Farmers' Perspectives on IPM Field Scouting During a Period of Insect Pest Range Expansion: A Case Study of Variant Western Corn Rootworm (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) in Wisconsin

Emerging issues in Integrated Pest Management Implementation and Adoption in the North Central USA

“…Less than a third of Wisconsin growers surveyed indicated complementary scouting influenced their decision to hire a custom applicator of herbicides (Hammond et al 2006). Another recent survey asked Wisconsin farmers whom they would like to conduct rootworm scouting on their farm: preferences were for self (or family), university extension agent, independent consultant, or Co-op agronomist, while representatives of pesticide or seed companies ranked among the least preferred (Cullen et al 2008).…”

“…There is some validity to this claim if what is meant by IPM is integrated management across classes of pests, across multiple pests within a class, and use of biocontrol agents (Ehler 2006). However, IPM adoption is not an all or nothing binary choice, but instead takes place along a continuum of choices (Kogan 1998;Hollingsworth and Coli 2001;Cullen et al 2008;Puente et al 2011). For example, most growers adopt weed and insect IPM components more readily than community-level or ecosystem-level components (Puente et al 2011).…”

“…For example, most growers adopt weed and insect IPM components more readily than community-level or ecosystem-level components (Puente et al 2011). Components of the IPM philosophy historically have been adopted to greater or lesser degree, mainly in the following ways: avoiding damaging pest populations using cultural methods and host plant resistance when appropriate; using insecticide only when necessary based on scouting for insect pest (or damage) incidence and pest abundance; using models to project pest development and population trends; using more selective chemistries when possible; rotating chemistries to avoid resistance development; and careful targeting, timing, and placement of treatments to limit negative impact on natural enemies (Heinemann et al 1992;Cullen et al 2008;Castle and Naranjo 2009). Though the approach to management of pests by the vast majority farmers in the North Central region cannot be described as "complete IPM", the benefits of lower-level adoption are not trivial.…”

“…Thus, the time required to implement an IPM strategy is a serious consideration for a grower (Fernandez-Cornejo et al 2002;Hammond et al 2006;Cullen et al 2008;Sanyal et al 2008). The constraint of efficiency can be mitigated by hiring crop consultants to undertake time-consuming tasks such as pest monitoring (see Sect.…”

“…Implementation of IPM ultimately resides with the grower (Buhler et al 2000;Cullen et al 2008;Zalucki et al 2009), and the grower has many motivations that militate against embracing complexity in management decisions. The grower always wants to get a decision right, in terms of it being the most cost-effective while minimizing economic risk (Zalucki et al 2009).…”