New Hampshire IPM Report, 2021

NEERA meeting: April 23, 2021

Anna Wallingford (Anna.Wallingford@unh.edu)

George Hamilton, Cheryl Smith, Rachel Maccini, Jeremy Delisle, Olivia Saunders, Shyloh Favreau, Sadie McCracken, Catherine Doheny

UNH Cooperative Extension’s IPM program has historically focused on educational efforts in Specialty Crops IPM, IPM in the Community, and Public Health IPM. This year is a time of great transition in our organization as we see the retirements of critical members of our team, hire new members, and focus our attention on training the next generation of IPM practitioners. We are also taking stock of lessons learned during a dramatic shift to distance education in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Retirements :(

  • George Hamilton, Hillsboro County, Fruit & Vegetable Crop Production, Crop Protection, Pesticide Application Technology, Sprayer Calibration
  • Cheryl Smith, Plant Diagnostic Clinic Director, Specialty Crops Protection Specialist

Plant Diagnostic Lab

  • Experimented with video chat diagnostics in lieu of physical sample submissions
  • Hiring a new plant pathologist to head UNH-PDL

Training the Next Generation of IPM Practitioners

Distance Education

  • Webinars! So many webinars! Live and available online
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP15ui7R8clKcMIP1E0W1pw
  • Over-Informed on IPM podcast
    https://extension.unh.edu/over-informed
  • Anecdotally, we felt that we lost contact with many of our regular clients during our shift from in-person meetings to webinars. However, we connected with many new clients using this format and many of those new clients were in what we would consider underserved audiences. This includes women, parents of young children, geographically isolated farmers, farmers with limited transportation, and farmers with day jobs.
  • Worked with NH Division of Pesticides to deliver web-based continuing education credits for pesticide applicators

Tree Fruit IPM

  • Prepare NH orchardists for potential BMSB Outbreak
    • DIY Trapping networks identified only small regions of concern
  • Encourage the use of alternatives for Lorsban for trunk borers
    • Provide education on delivering entomopathogenic nematodes through irrigation
  • Encourage the use of NEWA weather modeling for managing tree fruit pests
    • Establishing new stations, maintaining existing stations
    • One-on-one training and web-based tutorial on how to use weather data/models for IPM decision making
  • Collaboration with NRCS & Xerces Society to encourage the adoption of Integrated Pest & Pollinator Management plans
    • On-site pollinator assessments to improve wild bee identification, identify pollinator habitat in and around orchards, inform decisions on hive rental/purchase or establishment of new pollinator habitat
    • Building a working relationship between Extension and NRCS to inform 595 programs

Vegetables

  • Encourage adoption of monitoring key pests of sweet corn
    • Continue monitoring networks
    • Provide education on pesticide resistance, principles of resistance management
  • Encourage adoption of monitoring and behavioral controls for key pests of cucurbit crops
    • Continue monitoring networks
    • Provide education on behavioral controls, like border row only sprays, trap cropping, attract & kill, mass trapping
  • Identify pests of extended season vegetable production. After two years of scouting tunnels and surveying growers in order to determine key pest of early season vegetable production (February – May), we have yet to find any patterns in typical pest problems other than overwintered aphids and abiotic stress caused by high humidity and extreme temperature fluctuations. There is a need for more research in this area before we can advance with our educational objectives.

Greenhouse, Nursery & Landscape

  • Conduct a needs assessment for NH’s ornamental crop IPM
    • Neonicotinoid alternative pest management strategies for several scenarios
    • Thrips resistance management a top priority

Community IPM

Public Health

  • Work with State & Non-Profit Organizations to provide education on ticks & tick-borne disease