IPM Goes Areawide Large-scale, areawide pest management project may presage things to come as fruit growers back new approach to codling moth control.
Pest control is a major imperative in fruit production.
Commercial apple and pear growers, for example, begin to lose money when insect damage exceeds just 1 percent of their crop. We find it necessary to spray more and more, because the moths keep building up their populations. We need to cooperate and explore strategies, including nonchemical alternatives. Help is on the way. Basically, IPM is a system that combines many crop pest control practices with careful monitoring of both pests and their natural enemies.