U.S. Department of Agriculture: Agricultural Research Service, Lincoln, Nebraska
Date of this Version
2008
Abstract
The traditional approach to pest management is to treat the crop or commodity in a particular management unit before an economically significant infestation of the pest has developed. Determining the need to take corrective action is based on the economic threshold concept, which forms the basis of most integrated pest management programmes (Metcalf and Luckman, 1975). Areawide pest management (AWPM) can be contrasted with traditional pest management in that pest management tactics are used over a broad spatial area, often treating the whole area simultaneously to maintain the pest below economic levels or, in some cases, completely eradicate it. A WPM has potential advantages over the traditional approach. Suppression across a broad area may result in reduced reinfestation by migration from nearby unmanaged areas, and the pest management tactics employed may be more effective, particularly ecologically based tactics, when applied areawide.
Comments
Published in Areawide Pest Management: Theory and Implementation (eds O. Koul, G. Cuperus and N. Elliott) p.15-33