Re: Biobased Pest Management

Lon J. Rombough (lonrom@hevanet.com)
Mon, 26 Jan 1998 12:04:27 -0800

Question: Has anyone done anything in furthering devlopment of bug
vacuuming systems? I know some are used in California berry fields,
but it seems like there would be a BIG advantage to using them on many
other crops. I've gotten a home vacuum known as "Big Power" (see web
site under Big Power USA) that filters through water instead of a bag.
I got it too late in the year to give it a good field test, but the
design looks like it would be a good one for garden use. It can
double as an air filter with the attachments off - air is filtered
through the water directly. In the house, it cleans about 1,000 cubic
feet ever ten minutes, and you can see the difference - the amound of
matter that shows up in the water is surprising. Could be a good air
filter in a greenhouse.
-Lon Rombough

Steve Diver wrote:
>
> A compilation of biobased pest management practices,
> organized by categories of cultural, biological, mechanical,
> biorationals, etc. would be a nice starting point.
>
> Here, I am using biobased from the broad perspective rather
> than a limited definition that would include biocontrols only.
>
> A few practices that are less sustainable:
>
> *Clean cultivation of soils on sloping orchard lands for control of
> perennial and annual weeds......this can lead to loss of organic
> matter, poor earthworm count, loss of soil foodweb to induce
> natural biological control of diseases, etc. Some options include
> living mulch cover crops combined with partial tillage, undercut
> tillage to leave a surface mulch; many susties have no problemo
> whatsoever with the use of herbicides in the management of crop
> residues to maintain plant material cover instead of exposed soil.
>
> *Flame control of potato beetles....a dandy alternative technology
> that provides an alternative to synthetic pesticides on one hand,
> yet relies of fossil fuels and combustion of carbon fuels on the
> other.
>
> *Organic apple production...spray the trees 20 times during the
> growing season with rotenone-ryania-pyrethrum for organic
> acceptable insect control...in comparison to a low-spray program
> with 2 applications of the synthetic Imidan.
>
> *Tobacoo juice, chewed on by elderly residents in nursing homes
> in the South and gathered in spittoons, used as a biobased spray to
> control green bugs on corn crops in the Midwest. Some people argue
> it is un-sustainable to ship the tobacco juice from another bioregion.
>
> Steve Diver
>
> > Are all biobased pest management practices compatible with sustainable
> > agriculture? If not, which are most likely to be incompatible?
> >
> > Thank you for your help.
> >
> > Marc Safley
> > marc.safley@usda.gov
>
>
> --
> steved@ncatark.uark.edu
>
> To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with "unsubscribe sanet-mg".
> To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
> "subscribe sanet-mg-digest".

To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with "unsubscribe sanet-mg".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".