Integrated management of insect pests in dryland cereal crops of eastern Washington state

Washington State University Extension has lacked a cereal entomology specialist for many years. Other Extension faculty have stepped up to work on new invasive species, resulting in a piecemeal approach to managing insect pests. In 2015, members of the Dryland Grains Team proposed an integrated plan to survey and manage cereal pests.

We established a monitoring network on 20 commercial, dryland farms across eastern Washington. Each week from May through July, we surveyed each field for six new or established cereal pests. Our monitoring system served as an “early-warning” tool for growers, enabling them to better anticipate when and where pest problems might occur, and manage them accordingly. Using these data we generated maps each week that show regions that are at “high” or “low” risk from specific pests.  We published this information on the small grains website (www.smallgrains.wsu.edu).

We will use the data to develop phenological models that describe the yearly life-cycles of multiple insect pests in wheat. The models will increase our ability to anticipate pest problems throughout the growing season. We will use data collected to develop or localize economic thresholds for these pests.

Funds for this project were provided by WSU Extension in 2015. Although this integrated system is financially efficient, future funding remains unclear.