 Hello and welcome to Alabama Extension Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program at Auburn University. My name is Ayanava Majumdar, doctorate from Auburn University. I'm extension entomologist and also coordinate the beginning farmer program here at Auburn University. Today I'm going to talk very quickly about the three levels of pest management that forms the basis of the sustainable production system. So let's start out by talking about the first step to IPM or Integrate Pest Management which is insect monitoring. You need to know what insect you have whether it's a beneficial of a pest before you make any decision to manage them. So the thing that we use in the IPM program very effectively are sticky wing traps and here is a one of the sticky wing trap bottoms that shows the moths and this in this case this is a squash wine border which is a very difficult moth to track but you can capture them easily in these traps and know the numbers if you see this many moths in the trap you know there's trouble coming. I also keep some other things handy such as a yard stick so I know how many if I'm looking for caterpillars I know how many I'm counting in a certain distance and then I also carry a scouting flag. These tall ones are very good at marking a spot for example if you found a aphids at a spot put this down so you know you can come back in two three days and count again to see if the aphid numbers have gone up so these are some of the basic tools and don't forget to have a good magnifying magnifying glass with you so that you know if you're working with small insects also use your cell phone you have a camera on your phone use that and take pictures and send it to extension. So if you have determined what insects you have and if you have say for example leaf-footed bugs in tomatoes one of the first step you can do as a sustainable IPM practice is trap cropping and here I have some examples of trap crops this is a NK 300 sorghum head which is extremely attractive to leaf-footed bugs, sting bugs and then this is the peridovic type sunflower there's also other varieties of sunflower that are very attractive leaf-footed bugs and the trick is to let the insects come to these trap crops and they spare your main crop which is tomato that you want to sell or eat. Here's another example of a trap crop which is New England Hubbard this is a Hubbard squash that is extremely attractive to cucumber beetles squash bugs which are our major insect pests in the squash production system and this is an example of a trap crop but you can actually harvest or sell the trap crop and it's very easy to get these through online with seeds from the seed companies so this is your first level of pest management the next level is pest exclusion system and there's a lot of research going on in pest exclusion system thanks to our various funding agencies but just to show some examples there's two types of pest exclusion system the temporary exclusion system and the permanent system let's talk about pest exclusion system especially the temporary pest exclusion system which is very suitable for home garden and small farms so here I have different models of pest exclusion material you can buy online these days it's really convenient and it's worth the shot behind me this is a kind of a greenhouse type mini tunnel that you can see that has clear plastic on the sides and it has plot on the front or the end walls if you want to call it and this actually comes with a neat zipper where you can open the structure for ventilation so the zipper really helps to cool down your plants when it's too hot you can also access this your plants say for example you have to weed weed control you can open it you can hand weed or you can do a pressure application in here as needed but it is pretty warm in here whatever you're using these structures don't forget to close them up because they keep insects away and that's the big benefit you have on top of the rain and the wind protection you're getting make sure you also have your irrigation system set up before you do something this elaborate let's look at this next system which is basically a fleece grow tunnel and it has two parts the fabric and then the hoops you can buy these as kits online or you can buy the fabric separately so in my hand I have the super light insect value and you can get these hoops you can make them yourself or buy them online and you put them up over the over your crop and you can lay the fabric on the top try not to put the fabric directly over the crop because insects will get through the crop and they can still sting the crop so to keep the insects away from the crop make sure the hoops are raised up and then seal the seal the front and the back so that insects don't get in let's look at the last structure we have which is a plastic low tunnel or caterpillar tunnel whatever you want to call it and this one has again the hoops you can buy this as a kit and it has this plastic shearing which keeps the insects out it also raises the temperature inside it's similar to the other greenhouse structure we saw and you get a lot of benefit almost 10 to 15 degrees difference in temperature so this is really good for your early season start early spring when the temperatures are fluctuating and these all this fabric they will help to keep the temperature warmer and let the plants grow faster you also have to watch the amount of irrigation you need so you don't irrigate because this will exclude plastic will exclude rain so you have to make sure you you are putting the irrigation system and watch for weeds that pop up but these are very useful for growing crops and for your IPM solutions if you are a high tunnel producer you may want to in to have a permanent system of exclusion and for that you can use shade cloths like these black shade cloths or different colors to keep the insects out physically from the crop so pest exclusion system is really an amazing way of doing it but you have to learn to do it don't forget the beneficial insects there are a number of beneficial insect that are sold by the companies they're in your field make sure you're protecting the natural enemies by reducing your sprays and and you can buy these online very effectively from different vendors so in my hand is one of my favorite which is the lace wing but you can buy lady beetles assassin bugs lot of different choices if you are done with these IPM systems the next is use of bio insecticides or whatever insecticides you prefer but be please be careful with using any insecticide do not overuse resistance is an issue and you don't want other insects to flare up so this is really insecticide is really your last choice and if you're organic certified organic check the Omri label Omri stands for organic materials research institute that label must be there on the product and label is the law so please read the label the fine print on the back to see which crops it's effective for with all this information is available in our slide charts and I have some examples here here's an organic IPM slide chart which actually lays out the three levels of pest management we just talked about for example the sustainable system the first practice level one level two which is the pest exclusion systems and level three which is use of bio insecticides so all of this is laid out in the in the organic slide chart which we update periodically and this is available free of charge to all producers in Alabama and everywhere this is the urban farm IPM toolkit also suitable for home gardeners basically there's a home garden insect control guide and this tool condenses that guide into a really nice handy system with pictures that you can use we also have different publications like brochures for the beginning farmers we have high tunnel handbook crop production handbook for beginning farmers and then don't forget the vegetable handbook the southeast vegetable handbook remember to check the year and get a fresh copy every year from your regional extension agent or the county extension office and finally don't forget the farming basics phone app don't forget the farming basics phone app that farming basics phone app has your communication tool so you can call the agent find your agent call the agent it also has insect and pest database in here and it also allows you to contact us through the feedback so make sure you're using the farming basics phone app and for any other information please feel free to call me my phone number is 251-3318416 and my email is bugdoctoratoburn.edu thank you very much for your watching this video