Spring Webinar Series

Got an integrated pest management (IPM) question? Need to know the latest IPM information? The Northeastern IPM Center has the answers with our ongoing webinar series, the IPM Toolbox. We’ve asked the experts to join us for an hour of dialogue about an effective IPM practice, method, or effort.

Registered attendees who join in real time have the opportunity to engage in Q&A with the presenters. Recordings are made available for others to watch at their convenience.

To learn more about or register for upcoming webinars or to access recordings of past presentations, visit www.northeastipm.org/ipm-in-action/the-ipm-toolbox/.

Spring 2022 Toolbox Webinars

Tarping in the Northeast: A Guide for Small Farms

Sonja Birthisel, University of Maine

An overview of a newly created guide to tarping for the Northeast, the product of a Center-funded working group on tarping and soil solarization. Working group member and presenter Sonja Birthisel, along with her colleagues, sought to create a thorough and application-oriented guide that identifies best practices and fills key knowledge gaps. It covers many uses of tarps, including stale seedbed preparation, cover-crop termination, and application in perennial systems.

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Pesticides: Part of the IPM Toolbox

Mary Centrella & Dan Wixted, Cornell Cooperative Extension Pesticide Safety Education Program

A common misconception about integrated pest management is that it is opposed to pesticides. While it’s true that IPM encompasses many non-pesticide management tactics, it recognizes the importance of pesticides as part of its arsenal of pest-control measures. For pesticides to serve their purpose, proper use is critical to reduce risks to applicators and the environment.

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Combating Slugs as Pests of Soybeans and Corn

David Owens, University of Delaware; Sally Taylor, Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center

Slugs pose a significant pest problem for growers of seedling grain crops in the Mid-Atlantic region. This presentation explores the biology of the two most common slug species and how we’re working to control them. It includes a discussion of pesticides and their shortcomings for slug management, cultural control tactics, and new research currently underway.

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Taking a Closer Look: How Strawberry Disease Risk Varies with Microclimates at the Canopy Level

Mengjun Hu, University of Maryland

Row covers serve an important purpose in strawberry production, but they introduce a need to be more granular when taking weather measurements. Researchers found that canopy-level weather sensors produced different data when compared to nearby weather stations, and by conducting efficacy trials, they found that these differences play a role in designing effective fungicide treatments.