Impacts of cover crops on pests

Steve Diver (steved@ncatark.uark.edu)
Fri, 21 Nov 1997 18:04:07 +0000

Cover crops are getting a lot of attention for their ability
to help control pests. They serve as insectary plants to
provide nectar, prey food, and habitat for beneficial
insects and spiders. Certain cover crops control nematodes,
no-till mulches help control plant diseases.

But, there's another side to these multi-function plants. There's an
effort underway to identify the "negative" impacts of cover crops on
insect pests, nematodes, and plant pathogens. In other words, how
do cover crops "increase" the negative effects of harmful pests.

For example, the flowers of floor-growing legumes are notorious for
harboring cat-facing insects such as tarnished plant bugs and lygus
bugs in orchards. Other cover crops harbor deleterious nematodes, and
so on.

(Wow, big trade off....legumes for free-from-the-air N or increased usage
of pesticides to avoid cat-facing insects that damage fruit?....hmmm,
maybe there's a legume out there that "doesn't" harbor these fruit
munching bugs...until then, the current recommendation in many
southeastern states is DO NOT plant legumes in orchards. Of course,
in California--the land of milk and honey--they don't seem to mind
because legumes are widely used as part of a cover crop mix...so they
either don't got these particularly bad orchard bugs or they just spit on
'em and say "have no fear, diversity is king")

Well, here's my question. Can anybody provide a citation for review
articles or bulletins that summarize all these inter-related effects between
cover crops and crop pests?

I will be glad to get citations on both sides of the fence:

* Review of the beneficial impacts of cover crops on pests
* Review of the negative impacts of cover crops on pests

Steve Diver
ATTRA

P.S. For an introduction to the beneficial uses of cover crops
to control insect pests, check out the publication on ATTRA's
web page titled "Farmscaping to Enhance Biological Control" at:
http://www.attra.org


--
steved@ncatark.uark.edu


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