IPM in the sensitive environments of the desert Southwest is vulnerable to the destabilizing impact of mobile polyphagous pests that are capable of attacking winter vegetables, melons, and cotton, most notably, the silverleaf whitefly (Bemisia tabaci). Because of the year-round growing season present in desert cropping systems and the chronic nature of pest incidence, emphases are needed on area-wide reduction of pest populations through all means possible. This has led to the development of IPM programs for these crops that emphasize selective and other reduced-risk technologies, including insect growth regulators (IGRs) and neonicotinoid insecticides for the control of pests. In order to preserve these valuable IPM tactics by protecting them from resistance, we have developed IPM guidelines for cross-commodity management of whiteflies that transcend field or grower borders and depend on group adoption over large areas to be effective in area-wide source reduction as well as in proactive resistance management for major reduced-risk technologies (IGRs and neonicotinoids).

We have developed a novel approach for measuring spatially-relevant adoption of our IPM guidelines. This new analytical approach utilizes pesticide use reporting data and GIS/GPS technology as a means to understand area-wide adoption of the cross-commodity guidelines and to further guide future research, technology transfer, and outreach efforts. This technique allows us to evaluate IPM, and its implementation and adoption, to a level of organization that spans multiple crops and pests over entire ecosystems. Our model system of analysis should be broadly applicable to the measurement and improvement of IPM systems worldwide.