![Russ Groves](https://wiscontext.org/sites/default/files/styles/article_full_size_image/public/assets/images/up-pestmanagement-groves.jpg?itok=Mb_QR7P4)
Entomologist Russ Groves discusses the consequences pest control can have on groundwater and the crop production environment.
Entomologist Russ Groves discusses the consequences pest control can have on groundwater and the crop production environment.
Wisconsin is a national leader in growing and processing numerous specialty crops that include sweet corn, green beans, peas, potatoes and, of course, cranberries. These plants attract plenty of pests that eat and damage the crops, making their management a primary concern of farmers.
Control of insects and other arthropod pests has been based on the application of a rotating suite of pesticides.
Russ Groves, an entomologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a UW-Extension vegetable specialist, discussed pest control and its challenges in an Oct. 28, 2015 talk at the Wednesday Nite @ The Lab series on the UW-Madison campus. His presentation was recorded for Wisconsin Public Television's University Place.
New irrigation technology allows farmers to apply pesticides with water to specialty crops in a targeted manner. However, using these chemicals has environmental and economic consequences, Groves said. Pesticides may wind up in groundwater, and major food distributors are turning toward selling products with more of a "green" identity.
Groves also emphasized that quality and availability of groundwater is a concern that Wisconsin specialty crop producers are addressing. Practices intended to increase water efficiency, including the use of drip irrigation, micro-sprinklers and hydroponics, can also deliver reduced-risk insecticides.
Producers can combine multiple methods to keep agricultural pests to an acceptable level in a practice called integrated pest management. This suite of tools includes promoting natural enemies, placing baits and baiting systems, developing transgenic plants, fostering host plant resistance and using entomopathogens (that is, natural pathogens of insects).
Overall, the elements of integrated pest management include producers examining crops to determine whether pests are present, identifying specific pests, deciding how to proceed, and taking action, Groves explained, as well as the additional steps of following up to learn whether the intervention was appropriate and pursuing additional education in wake of those results.
Groves described efforts to control one of the most insecticide-resistant insects, the Colorado potato beetle. After first being registered in 1994, neonicotinoid insecticides were put into use and proved very effective against this pest. Farmers needed to apply the chemical only once in a growing season and it moved throughout a plant's system. But as with earlier pesticides, the Colorado potato beetle started developing resistance to neonicotinoids by 2005, and this adaptation was common by 2012, Groves explained, necessitating new methods to control the insect.
However, these neonicotinoid insecticides are still useful for controlling other pests, Groves said. Producers use in-furrow management practices with these insecticides on more than 85 percent of Wisconsin acreage. "In fact, right now, this class constitutes as much as 25 percent of the national market of pesticides," Groves added.
Groves is working with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection to analyze data about neonicotinoid insecticides turning up in groundwater. Researchers are exploring the solubility and mobility of neonicotinoids in groundwater, but Groves said they're in low concentrations that should not be a concern for human health.
The potential link of neonicotinoid insecticides to the disappearance of bees through colony collapse disorder has prompted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to accelerate its analysis of the effects of neonicotinoid insecticides, Groves said.
Key facts
Key quotes