Pest Management

These University of Hawaii fact sheets and virtual field day explain how to use sunn hemp as a cover crop to control weeds, nematodes and other pests, add soil nutrients, prevent erosion, and contribute to a more robust and complex community of beneficial nematodes.

This fact sheet describes efforts to breed honey bees, Apis mellifera, resistant to diseases and parasitic mites to reduce the amount of antibiotics and pesticides used in bee colonies and to ensure that our breeding methods and stock are accessible to beekeepers everywhere.

Inexpensive, highly effective methods for controlling parasites, including FAMACHA, a tool for diagnosing anemia in small ruminants.

This 20-page bulletin helps producers—and the educators who work with them—design farm-wide approaches to control pests.

Honeybee losses, compounded with rising rental rates for pollination, are a concern for many producers. Not only are growers looking for alternative pollinators to improve crop security, but they also want to learn how to manage on-farm habitats for native bees and other pollinators. Since 1988, NCR-SARE has supported researchers, educators, and producers who are researching, rearing, and managing species that provide pollination alternatives to the declining honey bee.

Backpack sprayers are a boon to farmers on small acreage, but not all sprayers are created equal. Video series.

This presentation presents an overview of key pest management topics: cultural practices, plant resistance, the use of beneficial insects, grafting and sprays.

A printed guide to insect conservation on fruit farms.

This project evaluated biofumigation as a control for two broad-spectrum soil-borne diseases that each pose a severe challenge to a different emerging vegetable production system.

This colorful, richly illustrated booklet offers an introduction to beneficial natural enemies and their use in pest management.

This fact sheet provides an alternative control strategy for pecan growers who, for a variety of reasons, find conventional spraying of insecticides unsuitable. This includes organic growers, and owners of dooryard trees, small orchards and commercial orchards who have concerns regarding spray drift. 

Extensive on-farm research evaluating the use of predator and parasitoid insects to control target pests on Solanacous crops, those grown most frequently in high tunnels in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Buckwheat has been used to suppress weeds on Northeastern farms for 400 years. This handbook outlines how to use buckwheat as an economical weed-control tool, with recommendations based on extensive grower surveys, original research and on-farm trials.

Red-headed flea beetles have a wide host range including chrysanthemums, forsythia, hibiscus, lamb’s-quarter, pigweed,zinnia, sedum, asters, Salvia, roses, hollies among many others.

Crop rotation is the ancient practice of growing a wide variety of crops in a sequential system throughout a field in order to avoid a buildup of disease and pests. Strategic crop rotations can help producers promote good soil health by alternating crops with different nutrient needs and benefit overall soil structure by breaking up subsoil by alternating deep and shallow rooting plants. NCR-SARE has valued research and education projects that study the applications of crop rotation-including improving soil quality and health, and managing pest, diseases, and weeds.

Crop Rotation on Organic Farms: A Planning Manual provides an in-depth review of crop rotation, including how it improves soil quality and health and helps manage pests, diseases and weeds.

This publication discusses the use of non-host crops, sorghum sudangrass and castor bean grown as cover crops, RKN-resistant crops, and the application of poultry litter (PL) and PL compost to manage RKN and root-lesion nematode.

University of Minnesota Entomologist Marla Spivak is advancing innovative integrated pest management strategies that help bees fight pests.

This bulletin describes some of the many agronomic crop alternatives, with plentiful examples of on-farm successes.

FAMACHA is a diagnostic tool to help farmers identify parasite infection in small ruminants, allowing them to cut the cost of deworming agents by targeting treatments only to infected animals. Training is required before purchase.

Overcoming weed challenges, Georgia farmer Relinda Walker brings the Southeast's first crop of certified organic peanuts to market.

Learn about tomato grafting and how it can be used to manage diseases in organic open-field and high tunnel systems.

This presentation summarizes a 2008 grant to evaluate ‘Maxifort’ rootstock for its ability to manage verticillium wilt and other soil-borne diseases.

It all began in 2002 with a $6,500 SARE grant and the seed of an idea: a no-till tractor implement that rolls, crimps and kills cover crops, creating a weed suppressing mulch.

An in-depth manual designed to help greenhouse growers implement biological control and integrated pest management (IPM).

This 20-minute video, produced by the University of Vermont Extension, features farmer Mike Collins taking viewers through each step of the grafting process.

While every farming system is unique, the principles of integrated pest management (IPM) apply universally. NCR-SARE has funded more than 100 projects on ecologically based pest management and the strategies of farmers throughout the region who are addressing pest problems. NCR-SARE has invested in pest management strategies to help develop more complex, more diverse ecosystems in the region.

This bulletin focuses on the management of the parasitic honey bee mite Varroa destructor (V. destructor) in the northeastern U.S. It contains information that will allow a beekeeper to: 1) identify V. destructor, 2) recognize the symptoms of mite infestation, 3) determine pest densities, and 4) implement an effective IPM program for keeping mite populations below the economic injury level.

Weed biology and ecology can help every farmer become a better weed manager. This guide is the result of a series of winter meetings attended by Michigan farmers, MSU Extension agents and research scientists. It brings together field-tested experience from successful growers and Extension agents and insights distilled from more than 50 years of weed science research.

In this webinar by Dr. Mary Barbercheck and Maggie Douglas, learn the basics about key early-season insect and slug pests that can pose problems in conservation tillage systems with high amounts of cover crop residues and how crop management practices can help reduce pest damage. Also, learn about ongoing research into naturally-occurring predators of early season insects and slugs and how best to conserve them.

While every farming system is unique, the principles of ecological pest management apply universally. Manage Insects on Your Farm highlights ecological strategies that improve your farm’s natural defenses and encourage beneficial insects to attack your worst pests.

These fact sheets discuss alternative containers, marketing and crop selection, alternatives to synthetic herbicides and integrated pest management in nurseries.

This 2007 Research and Education Grant, awarded to Cornell University, studied the use of predatory insects, resistant varieties and microbial fungicides.

Weeds can be challenging without rightsized mechanization.

A series of eight handbooks for new farmers or established producers seeking to transition to organic or improve their current practices. Print only; order from Chelsea Green.

In this webinar, Hanna Poffenbarger of the University of Maryland and Steven Mirsky of the USDA-ARS Sustainable Agriculture Systems Lab discuss optimizing cover crop mixture composition and manure application to achieve weed suppression and adequate, efficient nitrogen delivery in a cover crop-based no-till corn system.

This video presents information on the high tunnel production system most commonly used in Kentucky; the disease cycle of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum; and two control tactics compatible with national organic standards, solarization and biofumigation.

This fact sheet discusses an integrated strategy for controlling three caterpillar species—corn earworm, European corn borer and fall armyworm—using methods that meet current organic certification standards. Any grower interested in methods that are safe for the applicator and the environment may be interested in this approach.

A presentation of research on biological control methods in New York, including cultural practices, plant resistance, grafting, rotations, sprays and beneficials.

Sheep and goat production is a growing enterprise for small and limited resource farmers in the North Central region. While small ruminants (sheep and goats) are adaptable to many different production systems and can be raised with relatively few inputs, they present production challenges. In Ohio, researchers are examining the use of forage chicory as part of a gastrointestinal nematode parasites control strategy for sheep.

Crop management,fact sheets, and extensive appendices.

Order an entire set of SARE Outreach books and bulletins for one low price.

Information on how to handle pests and disease in the special growing environment of a hoop house, greenhouse or other season extension method.

Semiochemical-based trapping methods were developed for the control of the banana weevil (Cosmopolites sordidus), the New Guinea sugarcane weevil (Rhabdoscelus obscurus) and the sweetpotato weevil (Cylas formicarius) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). Photos of trapping systems, as well as trapping dates, were collected and developed into an instruction manual along with the developed methods.

In a SARE-funded project coordinated by Montana State University, researchers have demonstrated that using sheep to graze crop residue and summer fallow can help address insect, weed and residue management challenges.

Course on how to incorporate principles and practices of sustainable agriculture in training for southern region ag professionals, with a focus on integrated pest management.

Weed control demands time, labor and expense for every farmer every year. Steel in the Field shows how today's implements and techniques can control weeds while reducing—or eliminating—herbicides. Available only online.

This multi-page fact sheet describes basic parasite biology for gastrointestinal worms acquired by sheep and goats on pastures, and provides several strategies for managing internal parasitism. 

Hailing from small vegetable farms, cattle ranches and grain farms covering thousands of acres, the producers in The New American Farmer, 2nd edition have embraced new sustainable approaches to agriculture.

Researchers around the world have demonstrated that grafting—the fusing of a scion (young shoot) onto a resistant rootstock—can protect plants against a variety of soil-borne fungal, bacterial, viral and nematode diseases invarious climates and conditions.

A University of Massachusetts web page with information on integrated pest management (IPM), a practical way to effectively manage pests on vegetable bedding plants.

Larval wireworms are among the most destructive of soil insect pests. This publication reviews the wireworm literature and provides information on wireworm biology, monitoring risk assessment and nonchemical control options that can be integrated into a variety of production systems.