How can we manage insect pests while still protecting pollinators like honeybees? Lundin et al. (2021) suggest that the answer is Integrated Pest and Pollinator Management (IPPM).
What are Agroecosystems?
Agroecosytems, like farms, are areas of land that people modify. These ecosystems depend on how living things (e.g., plants and insects) interact with non-living things (e.g., water and soil). Three insect groups play important roles in agroecosystems: pests, natural enemies, and pollinators. Pests harm plants, natural enemies control pests, and pollinators help plants reproduce.
In the past, pesticides provided farmers with a cheap and easy to use solution. However, these chemicals can harm helpful insects and have long-term effects on the environment. IPPM is a different method to manage pests. It focuses on proactive, natural solutions, and considers the entire ecosystem (Figure 1). The method only uses pesticides or other reactive methods if necessary.
Figure 1. The Integrated Pest and Pollinator Management pyramid works from the bottom up. It focuses on nature-based solutions first and only uses pesticides as a last resort (Lundin et al., 2021).
Landscape Management
Landscape management focuses on actions that support pollinators and natural enemies of pests. This includes restoring natural habitats, planting a variety of plants, and adding food sources for helpful insects. Pests often like monocultures, which are large areas consisting of one type of plant. Thus, having a mix of plants can stop pests from taking over. This strategy also requires knowledge of which insects like which plants and how far they will travel for food.
Crop Field Management
Crop field management involves cultural control, which means choosing the right plants to attract or keep away certain insects. Farmers can design their fields to attract pollinators and predators while making it harder for pests to find food. One example is to grow several types of crops together, aka intercropping. Another example, cover cropping, involves including non-crop plants that improve soil and pest control. Farmers can also use organic fertilizers, netting, or plants that resist pests or attract pollinators.
Sampling, Monitoring, and Thresholds
At this stage, farmers look at the costs and benefits of managing insects. Economic Threshold (ET) helps farmers decide when pest damage is bad enough to need action. For example, if pest damage costs more than the cost of control, it’s time to act. Pollinator Economic Impact Level (PEIL) helps farmers understand how pollinator decline can affect their crops. But both ET and PEIL need a lot of data, so they can be difficult to use.
Biotic Inputs: Biocontrol Agents & Managed Pollinators
Biotic inputs are living organisms that help with pest management and pollination. A common example is bees. Farmers raise bees and release them to pollinate crops. Other examples include using bacteria or natural predators (e.g., parasitic wasps) to control pests. Biotic inputs work best in areas with lots of resources to avoid competition between helpful and harmful insects.
Abiotic Inputs: Pesticides & Artificial Pollination
Abiotic inputs are human-made solutions to control pests and pollinate crops. While pesticides are easy to apply, they can drift to other ecosystems and damage the environment. They can also harm pollinators, which lowers crop yields. Abiotic inputs can also include hand-pollination or pollen spraying. This can help when pollinators are scarce but are difficult to do on a large scale.
Conclusion
IPPM has a lot of potential. As honeybee health becomes a bigger concern and pesticide options decrease, using nature-based solutions will become more important. To make IPPM more standardized, farmers need clear guidelines, flexible solutions, and more economic research. One challenge will be getting land managers to work together. Farms using IPPM could still experience the effects of a neighboring farm that uses pesticides. Over time, new pest management policies and support from the community will help IPPM succeed.
Reference
Lundin, O., Rundlöf, M., Jonsson, M., Bommarco, R., & Williams, N. M. (2021). Integrated pest and pollinator management – expanding the concept. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 19(5), 283–291. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27091434
About the Author
Caitey Gilchrist is completing her Bachelor of Science in Ecological Restoration at British Columbia Institute of Technology. She holds a Diploma in Forest and Natural Area Management, and has worked in various roles managing invasive plants and insects.
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