New Hampshire IPM Report, 2020

NEERA meeting: May 12, 2020

Our IPM Team: Anna Wallingford (Entomology), George Hamilton (Fruit & Vegetable Production Specialist), Cheryl Smith (Plant Pathology), Rachel Maccini (Pesticide Safety Education/Public Health/Structural), Olivia Saunders (Honey Bee), Alina Harris (Pollinator Protection), Sadie McCracken (Protected Culture)

Tree Fruit

  • Regional monitoring for BMSB detected threshold populations (10/pheromone-baited pyramid trap) in southern regions of the state, September 2019. Pre-harvest apple injury assessment detected 0–2% injury in 20 orchards. We will be offering trapping supplies and phone support for 2020 season as part of a DIY monitoring program (w/ support from Mary Conklin of UConn, Jaime Piñero of UMass).
  • Adoption of NEWA pest modeling is increasing, particularly for predicting apple scab primary infection periods. We increased the number weather stations in 2019/2020. Collaboration with Dan Olmstead of NYIPM planned to develop a series of promotional & educational videos, or “webinettes,” for roll out of NEWA’s new look in 2021.
  • In partnership with NRCS/Xerces Society, Alina Harris will take on pollinator protection education (with the help of Kathleen Leahy of Polaris IPM), production of Integrated Pest & Pollinator Management guide for tree fruit, trialing web tools for pollinator assessment tools.
  • Grower concerns over loss of chlorpyrifos for trunk borer protection. Plans for demonstration trials comparing Lorsban trunk treatments with Altacor trunk treatments for management of peach tree borers, 2020–2023.

Small Fruit

  • Blueberry saw high rates of crop loss due to winter injury in 2019
  • Several reports of cranberry/cherry fruitworm larvae in high bush blueberry. Salt-float sampling (for SWD) found presence of fruitworm larvae at 20% of blueberry farms sampled, largely insecticide-free plots.
  • SWD monitoring tool “decision tree” developed to help those who have not yet adopted monitoring to select the monitoring approach that is correct for their operation.

Vegetable

  • In a 2019 survey, fewer than 5% of farmers who participated in our sweet corn pest monitoring program reported the use of diamides (e.g., Coragen, Exirel) to protect their crop from caterpillars. Due to concerns over chemical resistance to pyrethroids reported in key sweet corn pests, like corn earworm, our educational efforts in 2020 will focus on encouraging growers to include multiple IRAC classes into their spray rotations, including the more environmentally-friendly diamides.
  • Evaluated a lure containing synthetic striped cucumber beetle pheromone in a trapping study that confirmed attraction of striped, spotted cucumber beetle, squash bug to traps in 2019. Plans for attract-and-kill studies in 2020–2023.
  • Reformatting the Insect section of the 2021–2022 New England Vegetable Pest Management Guide to reflect products best used for prevention/remediation of pest populations, improvements to IPM section for use as a study guide for pesticide applicator exam
  • Developing scouting techniques for high tunnel tomato pests, plans to improve education on integration of biological and chemical control for management of common greenhouse pests
  • Region-wide samples requested to identify aphid species affecting winter-grown tunnel crops
  • Identified need for better approach to onion scouting

Green Industries

  • UNH Extension hired Muhammad Shahid, Greenhouse & Nursery Production Specialist
  • Undergraduate researcher, Sadie McCracken, will be developing and conducting a needs assessment for New Hampshire’s green industry in 2020
  • Educational emphasis on “neonicotinoids in context” for growers considering a transition to neonicotinoid-free production, plans to improve education on alternative approaches

Public Health

  • NH now collaborating with UMass’s TickReport for tick testing and education on tick-borne disease
  • Partnered with non-profit, Bebob Labs, in their citizen science project to characterize tick species composition and prevalence of tick-borne disease in northern regions of NH
  • Developing train-the-trainer tick and tick-borne disease education for camp counselors, in partnership with Seacoast Health and the state Department of Health & Human Services

Home Garden

  • Our Education Center answers questions via phone/email and has adopted an online ticketing system to streamline requests from volunteers to Extension specialists for expert advice
  • Master Gardener training on answering questions about controversial topics (e.g., GMOs, neonicotinoids, organic certification)

Invasive Pests

  • Brown Marmorated Stink Bug now a growing concern for NH tree fruit
  • Swede Midge is present in northern regions of NH but no commercial crop loss reported
  • Spotted Lanternfly has not been detected in NH, distributed education materials among extension professionals only

Response to COVID-19

  • Plant diagnostic lab is currently not accepting physical samples, working towards finding new methods of communicating and diagnostics
  • Working with New England states to transition pesticide applicator credit-earning opportunities to webinar format
  • Increasing participation in Do-It-Yourself monitoring, w/ phone & email “Sherpa Services,” for codling moth, squash vine borer, sweet corn insect pests, BMSB, etc.
  • Our education center has reported a dramatic increase in requests for more information about growing and preserving food

Other Outputs

  • Over-Informed on IPM podcast covering a wide range of topics in fruit and vegetable crop protection, features interviews from IPM specialists around the country
  • Weed IPM Webinar series in collaboration with experts from NY, ME, RI, available on YouTube
  • Honey Bee IPM Workshop offered in collaboration with local beekeeping organizations
  • Archiving projects are in the works with the goal of preserving institutional knowledge