For example, planting wheat after the fly-free date can greatly reduce damage from Hessian fly . Conventional tillage, which buries plant debris, destroys much disease inoculum and overwintering sites for stalk borers, armyworms, and slugs. Narrow row widths and optimum plant populations help agronomic crops compete with emerging weeds. Early harvest may help reduce losses from stalk rot in corn. Although cultural management has the advantage of being part of routine crop production practices, it often does not adequately manage moderate to high pest levels.
Genetic management uses tolerance or resistance of plant varieties to certain pests.
Varietal resistance is a preferred method for managing certain pests because it usually provides relatively long-term control at low cost. Also, some crop varieties may be more tolerant of pests because they may outgrow pest damage. Unfortunately, many pests have the ability to develop strains or races capable of overcoming varietal resistance. Therefore, a crop variety with good resistance to a certain pest may be effective only for a few years. Biological management involves the use of other living organisms to manage pests.