1. Classes, Functions, Methods
Pest Management
Classes, Functions, Methods

2. Pests – 100 species cause 90% of damage
Any organism that interferes in some way with human welfare or activities

3. PROTECTING FOOD RESOURCES: PEST MANAGEMENT
Organisms found in nature (such as spiders) control populations of most pest species as part of the earth’s free ecological services.
Spiders kill far more insects than insecticides do
Figure 13-27

4. PROTECTING FOOD RESOURCES: PEST MANAGEMENT
We use chemicals to repel or kill pest organisms as plants have done for millions of years.
1600’s – nicotine from tobacco
1800’s – pyrethrum from chrysanthemum flower
Chemists have developed hundreds of chemicals (pesticides) that can kill or repel pests.
Pesticides vary in their persistence.
Each year > 250,000 people in the U.S. become ill from household pesticides.

5. PEST MANAGEMENT: Conventional chemical pesticides
25% - non agriculture use (lawns, golf courses, etc)
Average lawn gets 10x more per acre than cropland
Figure 13-28

6. Classification of Pesticides
Specific Types:

7. Herbicides
A toxic chemical that kills plants

8. Insecticides
A toxic chemical that kills insects

9. Other Pesticides Rodenticides Fungicides Nematicides Algaecides
A toxic chemical that kills rodents
Fungicides
A toxic chemical that kills fungi
Nematicides
A toxic chemical that kills nematodes (roundworms)
Algaecides
A toxic chemical that kills algae
Bactericides
A toxic chemical that kills bacteria
Piscicides
A toxic chemical that kills fish (unwanted species)

10. Hard/Persistent Pesticides
Characteristics:
Composed of compounds that retain their toxicity for long periods of time. They work their way up the food chain through animals and may accumulate in their fatty tissues and stay indefinitely.
Examples
DDT and many other chlorinated hydrocarbons.

11. Soft Pesticides Characteristics Examples
Reduced-risk pesticides. They are short-term and don’t harm the environment or man.
Examples
soaps, oils, plant extracts, baking soda, and dish liquid.

12. Chemical Classes of Pesticides

13. Organochlorines (chlorides)
Hard/persistent
Toxic in the long term
Not very toxic in the short-term
Ex. DDT

14. Organophosphates Soft/not persistent Highly toxic in the short term
They require very specific safety equipment for application.
Ex. Parathion

15. Carbamates Soft/not persistent Not as toxic as the other two
Most of the over-the-counter pesticides.
Ex. Sevin Dust

16. Historical Use of Pesticides
Natural Pesticides – pyrethrins (from chrysanthemums); sulfur and garlic
Synthetic Pesticides – Used during and after WWII and today.

17. Benefits of Pesticide Usage

18. Disease Control Save human lives
Prevent insect-transmitted diseases, such as malaria (anapheles mosquito), bubonic plague (rat fleas), typhus (body lice & fleas), & sleeping sickness (tsetse fly).

19. Food Production Increase food supplies and lower food costs.
About 55% of the world’s food supply is lost to pests before (35%) and after (20%) harvest.
These losses would be worse and food prices would rise.

20. Fiber Production Crops such as cotton
Kills pests like the cotton boll weevil.

21. Efficiency When Compared to Alternatives
Pesticides control most pests quickly and at a reasonable cost.
They have a long shelf life
Easily shipped and applied
Are safe when handled properly.
When genetic resistance occurs, farmers can use stronger doses or switch to other pesticides.
Proponents feel they are safer than the alternative

22. Development of Safer Pesticides
such as botanicals and micro-botanicals
safer to users and less damaging to the environment.
Genetic engineering holds promise in developing pest-resistant crop strains.
It is very expensive to develop these, so they are only doing it for large-market crops like wheat, corn, and soybeans.

23. Problems Associated with Pesticide Usage

24. Genetic Resistance
Pesticide use accelerates development of resistant organisms
Pests breed quickly
Creates pesticide “treadmill” - having to use more pesticides that will continue to have less effect

25. Superbugs Genetic resistance to pesticides.
Insects breed rapidly; within 5-10 years (sooner in tropics) they can develop immunity to pesticides and come back stronger than before.
Weeds and plant-disease organisms also become resistant.
520 insect and mite species, 273 weed species, 150 plant diseases, and 10 rodent species (mostly rats) have developed genetic resistance to pesticides.
At least 17 insect pest species are resistant to all major classes of insecticides

26. Superpests Superpests are resistant to pesticides.
Superpests like the silver whitefly (left) challenge farmers as they cause > $200 million per year in U.S. crop losses.
Figure 13-29

27. Case Study: Growing Germ Resistance to Antibiotics
Rabidly producing infectious bacteria are becoming genetically resistant to widely used antibiotics due to:
Genetic resistance: Spread of bacteria around the globe by humans, overuse of pesticides which produce pesticide resistant insects that carry bacteria.
Overuse of antibiotics: A 2000 study found that half of the antibiotics used to treat humans were prescribed unnecessarily.

28. Formation of New Pests Turning of minor pest into major pests.
The natural predators, parasites, & competitors of a pest may be killed by a pesticide it allows the pest population to rebound.
EX. DDT to control insect pests on lemon trees caused an outbreak of a scale insect (a sucking insect that attacks plants) that had not been a problem.

29. Impact on Non-target Organisms
Pesticides don’t stay put.
The USDA says that only 2% of the insecticides from aerial or ground spraying actually reaches the target pests
Only 5% of herbicides applied to crops reaches the target weeds.
They end up in the environment

30. Food/Water Contamination
Pesticides run off into our water as we spray for bugs & stay on our food.
Example: cyanide in apple seeds
Can harm wildlife and threaten human health

31. Persistence
Many pesticides stay in the environment for a very long time. Ex. Biomagnification of DDT
Increase severity higher up in the food chain.

32. Bioaccumulation/Biomagnification
Increase in the concentration of a chemical in specific organs or tissues at a level higher than normal.
Stored in body fat and can be passed along to offspring.
Usually a concern to organisms higher on the food chain.

33. Case Study: Minamata, Japan
Mental impairments, birth defects, and deaths were caused by mercury.
The mercury dumped in Minamata Bay by a factory entered humans through their diet of fish.

34. Pesticide Poisoning (Toxicity)
Short-term exposure to high levels of pesticides can result in harm to organs and even death (Acute)
Long-term exposure to lower levels of pesticides can cause cancer. (Chronic)
Children are at a greater risk than adults.

35. Pesticide Poisoning Symptoms Examples Nausea, vomiting, and headaches.
More serious can result in damage to the nervous system & other body organs.
Examples
The W.H.O. estimates that more than million people are poisoned by pesticides each year, & about 220,000 die.

36. Carcinogen National Cancer Institute
Pesticides have been shown to cause lymphomas, leukemia, brain, lung, and testicular cancers.
The issue of whether certain pesticides cause breast cancer remains unresolved
Researchers have noted a correlation between a high level of pesticides in the breast's fatty tissue and cancer.

37. Label Requirements The brand name The ingredient statement
The percentage or amount of active ingredient(s) by weight
The net contents of the container
The name and address of the manufacturer
Registration and establishment numbers
Harvesting and/or grazing restrictions
Signal words and symbols
Precautionary statement
Statement of practical treatment
Environmental hazard statement
Classification statement
Directions for use
Re-entry statement
Storage and disposal statement.

38. How Pesticides Function

39. LD-50 (Median Lethal Dose)
The LD-50 is the amount of pesticide it will take, in one dose, to kill ½ of all the target organisms (usually rats & mice).
Use of dose-response analysis exposes organisms to different concentrations of toxins.
Threshold dose occurs once there is a negative effect

40. Nervous System
Some interfere with the nervous system, cause uncontrollable muscle twitching or paralysis.
Some are nervous system poisons. Ex. Spectracide, Nicotine, DDT, Dursban, & Diazinon.

41. Photosynthesis
Some pesticides inhibit photosynthesis and prevent chlorophyll formation.
Ex. Stampede, Pyrazon.

42. Smothering
The vapors kill the pest by suffocating the animal. Soap can smother soft bodies of insects.
Ex. flea collars, pest strip, and soap.

43. Dehydration
Dehydration uses the fossilized remains of tiny, one-celled organisms called diatoms. It kills insects by scratching their wax outer covering and causing them to dehydrate. This is a soft pesticide.

44. Inhibition of Blood Clotting
Other types of pesticides cause animals (especially rats) to bleed to death by preventing their blood from clotting.

45. The Ideal Pesticide
The ideal pest-killing chemical has these qualities:
Kill only target pest.
Not cause genetic resistance in the target organism.
Disappear or break down into harmless chemicals after doing its job.
Be more cost-effective than doing nothing.

46. The Perfect Pesticide
Characteristics: The ideal pesticide would kill only the organism for which it was intended to harm, and not any other species. It would be broken down by natural chemical decomposition or by biological organisms.
Example: The perfect pesticide would break down into safe materials such as water, carbon dioxide, and oxygen. It would stay exactly where it was put and not move around in the environment. There is no such thing!

47. Pesticides and the Law EPA
The EPA & USDA & FDA are responsible for the overseeing the laws.

48. Research
Pesticide companies must use 3 methods to determine pesticides health threats:
Case Reports – (made to physicians) about people suffering from adverse health effects
Laboratory Investigations – (usually on animals) to determine toxicity, residence time, what parts of the body are affected and how the harm takes place.
Epidemiology – (in populations of humans exposed) used to find why some people get sick while others do not

49. Days to Harvest
The last day you can spray crops before you harvest them for human consumption.

50. Restrictions
The EPA sets a tolerance level specifying the amount of toxic pesticide residue that can legally remain on the crop when the consumer eats it.

51. FFDCA Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act Strengthened in 1996
Sets pesticide tolerance levels

52. FIFRA The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide & Rodenticide Act
It was first established in 1947 & revised as recently as 1996.
States what must be on a pesticide label & requires registration of all pesticides.

53. Label Requirements the brand name the ingredient statement
the percentage or amount of active ingredient(s) by weight
the net contents of the container
the name and address of the manufacturer
Registration and establishment numbers
Signal words and symbols
Precautionary statement
Statement of practical treatment
Environmental hazard statement
Classification statement
Directions for use
Re-entry statement
Harvesting and/or grazing restrictions
Storage and disposal statement.

54. FQPA Food Quality Protection Act Established in 1996
Amends both FIFRA and FFDCA.

55. Problems with enforcement
Lack of time and money to test all compounds
Inadequate enforcement
Pre-1972 pesticides don’t have as strict standards
Banned or unregistered pesticides can be shipped to other countries
Imported food may have unsafe levels of pesticide residue

56. Rachel Carson Time Rachel Carson lived from 1907 to 1964.
She published her famous work Silent Spring in 1962.

57. Contributions
“Pesticide sprays, dusts, and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests, and homes - non selective chemicals that have the power to kill every insect, the good and the bad, to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish in the streams, to coat the leaves with a deadly film and to linger on soil - all this though the intended target may be only a few weeds or insects. Can anyone believe . . .

58. Contributions
. . . it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for life? They should not be called insecticides, but biocides.”
Silent Spring heightened public awareness and concern about the dangers of uncontrolled use of DDT and other pesticides, including poisoning wildlife and contaminating human food supplies.

60. Reducing Exposure to Pesticides
What Can You Do?
Reducing Exposure to Pesticides
• Grow some of your food using organic methods.
• Buy organic food.
• Wash and scrub all fresh fruits, vegetables, and wild foods you pick.
Figure 13.30
Individuals matter: ways to reduce your exposure to pesticides. QUESTION: Which two of these actions do you think are the most important?
• Eat less or no meat.
• Trim the fat from meat.
Fig , p. 299

61. Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
Definition:
A limited use of pesticides along with other practices.
Important as a form of pollution prevention – reduces risk to wildlife and humans

62. Other Ways to Control Pests
There are cultivation, biological, and ecological alternatives to conventional chemical pesticides.
Fool the pest through cultivation practices.
Provide homes for the pest enemies.
Implant genetic resistance.
Bring in natural enemies.
Use pheromones to lure pests into traps.
Use hormones to disrupt life cycles.

63. Integrated Pest Management
Integrated pest management (IPM) describes pest control practices where each crop and its pests are evaluated as part of an ecological system. A program is developed that includes crop management (e.g. intercropping or polyculture where multiple types of plants are planted together), and biological and chemical controls.
The aim is not to eradicate pest populations, but to reduce crop damage to an economically tolerable level.
An increasing number of pest control experts and farmers believe IPM is the best way to control crop pests because of the many different methods that are used.
Intercropping: peas and corn

64. Cereal Research Centre, AAFC
Stages in IPM
IPM involves several phases. Crop management and monitoring of pest levels are ongoing. When crop damage becomes unacceptable, farmers implement the following control measures in sequence and with the proper timing.
Stage 1: Cultivation controls, such as hand weeding and vacuuming crops to remove insect pests.
Stage 2: Biological controls, such as pheromone traps, and natural predators, parasites, and disease organisms.
Stage 3: Targeted pesticide use (chemical controls), mostly based on natural insecticides. Different chemicals are used to slow the development of resistance.
Hand weeding
Cereal Research Centre, AAFC
Pheromone trap

65. Cultural Methods

66. Physical
This includes rotating between different crops, selecting pest-resistant varieties, planting pest-free rootstock, and vacuuming up harmful bugs.
                              

67. Traditional “EcoFarmer”
Each crop is evaluated as parts of an ecological system.
A control program is developed that includes a mix of cultivation, biological, and chemical methods applied in proper sequence with the proper timing.

68. Biological Methods

69. Other Ways to Control Pests
Biological pest control: Wasp parasitizing a gypsy moth caterpillar.
Figure 13-31

70. Predators/Parasites
Using natural predators & parasites to control population of pests.

71. Biological Pest Control
Biological control (biocontrol) is a management tool for controlling pests using parasites, predators, disease organisms.
Control agents with a botanical or microbial origin (e.g. Bt toxin) are classified as biopesticides.
Biological control is an important part of IPM but it is not risk free. Some biocontrol agents may even become pests themselves attacking beneficial species. The cane toad (right) was introduced to Australia to control gray cane beetle and is now a major threat to native wildlife by displacing native species.
Ladybugs are voracious predators of aphids
Cane toad
Photo: Ian Smith

72. Diseases
Using disease organisms (bacteria and viruses) to control pests.

73.                                                                                         
Natural Repellants
                                              
Garlic, sulfur, pyrethrins (from chrysanthemums) to help control pests.

74. Microbials Used for insect wars, especially by organic farmers.
EX. The Bacillus thruingensis (Bt) toxin is a registered pesticide sold commercially as a dry powder.
Each of the thousands of strains of this common soil bacteria kills a specific pest.

75. Timing of Application
Adjusting planting times so that major insect pests either starve or get eaten by their natural predators.

76. Type of Crops
Switching from vulnerable monocultures to intercroping, agroforestry, and polyculture, which use plant diversity to reduce losses to pests.

77. Photodegradable Plastics
Using plastic that degrades slowly in sunlight to keep weeds from sprouting between crops.

78. Pheromones
Synthesized bug sex attractant used to lure pests into traps or attract their predators.

79. GMO- Genetically Modified Organism
Genetic Methods
GMO- Genetically Modified Organism
Can be controversial
Banned in Europe

80. Genetically Modified
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or genetically modified foods (GMFs) have environmental advantages:
Higher yields per acre and thus less land is needed.
Permits low tillage which reduces soil erosion, energy consumption and water loss.
Lower fertilizer requirement, drought, disease, frost, salinity and pest resistance.
Disadvantages:
Resistance may impact beneficial insects
Native plant diversity impacted
Higher yields require higher inputs of herbicides and pesticides
Lower genetic variability
The process of making a genetically modified organism.

81. Other Ways to Control Pests
Genetic engineering can be used to develop pest and disease resistant crop strains.
Both tomato plants were exposed to destructive caterpillars. The genetically altered plant (right) shows little damage.
Figure 13-32

82. Resistant Crops
Plants and animals that are resistant to certain pest insects, fungi, and diseases can be developed.
This can take 10 to 20 years.
Genetic engineering is now helping to speed up this process through the development of transgenic crops.

83. Sterilization
Males of some insect species can be raised in the laboratory, sterilized by radiation or chemicals, and released into an infested area to mate unsuccessfully with fertile wild females.
Males are sterilized rather than females because the male insects mate several times, whereas the females only mate once.

84. Sterilization: Screw worm
Fly lays flesh eating maggots in wounds of animals…really gross!
modern cattle industry provided many thousands of cows as potential hosts for the fly
serious outbreak in the southern US in 1934 resulted in over 1.3 million cases of infestation and the death of over 200,000 animals.
During 1959, about two billion male screwworm flies sterilized by gamma-irradiation were released in FL
similar program was initiated in the southwestern states in 1962 and later along the Texas-Mexico border
These efforts involved the release of as many as one billion sterile male flies every year
The screwworm was declared eradicated in the United States by 1966

86. No Pesticide Use
Organic Farming

87. Advantages of Organic Farming
Traditional haymaking, Ireland
Advantages of organic farming include:
Farmers can still make use of new high yielding crop varieties (right).
Produce is pesticide free and produced sustainably.
Crop type is more closely matched to the appropriate season and soil.
Increases crop diversity and disrupts disease and pest cycles.
Improves soil quality and structure, reducing nutrient and water loss.
Decreased fossil fuels, climate impacts, extraction impacts, and air pollutants

88. Disadvantages of Organic Farming
Organic produce
The disadvantages of organic farming include:
Yields are lower and more land is required for the same yield.
Produce may be more expensive to buy, of reduced quality and with a shorter shelf life. Consumer choice may be restricted if out of season.
There may be considerable bacterial contamination of produce due to high use of manures.
Muck spreading
Indicates suitable crops and cultivation practices, addition of sand silt or clay, addition of lime or sulfur to neutralize soil pH, burning to release phosphorous, plant legumes to increase nitrogen, examination of irrigation practices, reduce use of inorganic fertilizers, addition of organic matter to improve soil quality.
Discuss locally grown produce environmental and economic advantages.

89. Svalbard International Seed Vault
Living Fort Knox: designed to protect the specimens from catastrophic events, used to replenish national seed banks.
Some crops, such as peas, may only survive for years. Others, such as sunflowers and grain crops, are understood to last for many decades or even hundreds of years.
Photo:Global Crop Diversity Trust Mari Tefre
Image:Global Crop Diversity Trust

90. Svalbard International Seed Vault
The Svalbard International Seed Vault on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, 1000km from the North pole is one of the world’s newest seed vaults.
It accepted its first seeds on the 26th of February 2008.
It is built into the side of a sandstone mountain, surrounded by permafrost and cooled to -18oC.
The vault has meter thick walls, two air locks and blast-proof doors.
Photo:Global Crop Diversity Trust Mari Tefre
Image:Global Crop Diversity Trust

91. Sustainable Agriculture
An integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will last over the long term.
The components of sustainable, low input agriculture are applicable to any type of cropping or harvesting system.
High yield polyculture
Organic fertilizers
Biological pest control
Integrated pest management
Irrigation efficiency
Perennial crops
Crop rotation
Use of more water-efficient crops
Soil conservation
Subsidies for more sustainable farming and fishing
Soil erosion
Salinization
Aquifer depletion
Overgrazing and overfishing
Loss of biodiversity
Loss of prime cropland
Food waste
Population growth
Poverty
Subsidies for unsustainable farming and fishing
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