Environmentally sound pest control thrives with IPM program

by Jon Stemmle

y this point, everyone should be used to the endless drone of the cicadas and seeing them stuck on trees and buildings everywhere. With 5,000-plus trees and countless shrubs and plants, the responsibility of keeping the cicadas — and every other insect — in check on campus falls to landscape services' Michele Quinn, the coordinator of MU's "integrated pest management" program.

Landscape Services' IPM coordinator Michelle Quinn and arborist Steve Parker look for signs of insect infestation on one of MU's 5,082 trees.

MU is one of only a handful of campuses around the country with an innovative IPM program for combatting insects and maintaining the health of campus flora. The program is unique in that it protects and preserves the campus landscape while minimizing harm to humans and the environment. Cornell, Michigan, Purdue, Iowa, Florida State and Maryland were early IPM innovators; MU's IPM program was initiated in 1996 by Landscape Services.

"It's both a philosophy and a practice,'' said Quinn, who holds a B.S. degree in horticulture from MU and an M.S. degree in plant protection and pest management from the University of California-Davis. "It's a broad, multi-disciplinary, systematic approach to controlling all pests, based on understanding both the plants to be protected and the pests to be controlled.''

During peak insect months — early May through early October — Quinn monitors individual trees, shrubs and plants throughout campus, searching for the beginnings of insect infestation and possible disease. When pests are located, she selects one or integrates several methods — biological, cultural, mechanical and chemical — to eliminate them.

"Biological controls are friendly predators, such as lady bugs, lace wings, and certain wasps, used to infiltrate and destroy the pests,'' Quinn said. "Cultural and regulatory methods involve the manner of growing plants that affect pest populations and growing site-suitable, resistant and/or tolerant plants.''

Mechanical IPM methods involve the use of tools, such as special paper and poly-pipe for covering trunks and limbs of trees.

On the MU campus, these methods are integrated for use against a host of tiny critters: aphids, lace bugs, various beetles, spider mites, moths and borers, each of which preys on different flora.

According to Tom Flood, superintendent of landscape services, the priority in pest-management is placing the correct plants in the right campus locations. Synthetic chemical control — if employed at all — is used minimally and then only when other non-chemical methods prove ineffective or too costly.

"There's no final solution to insect pests,'' Quinn said. "They can't be eliminated — only controlled and managed. But knowing their habits and anatomical weaknesses allows cleaner, non-toxic methods of attack to be used — methods that are human- and environment-friendly and have the least impact on our health.''