Page 13 - Griffin Gazette Issue 1 - 2021
P. 13

CHOOSE SPRAYS THAT ARE MORE
                                                                  COMPATIBLE WITH YOUR
            BE MINDFUL OF WHERE YOUR SPRAYS                       DESIRED BCAS
            ARE TARGETED AND WHERE
            YOUR BCAS LIVE                                        Sprays with biologically-derived active ingredients often
                                                                  present  fewer  compatibility  issues with  many  BCA
            With the exception of systemic products, most pesticide   products. Insecticidal fungi such as  B. bassiana  or
            sprays essentially stay where you spray them. Foliar BCAs   I. fumosorosea represent effective treatments for aphids
            will be less bothered by drench applications; soil-level BCAs   and other common indoor grow pests when combined with
            stay separate from your foliar sprays. Strategic application   azadirachtin, while presenting no to mild toxicity issues for
            choices help growers to maintain healthy BCA populations   beneficial insects.
            while still incorporating sprays into their rotations. That
            being said, spray drift from neighboring crops in the same
            production area has the potential to affect nearby, unsprayed
            crops or BCAs.








                                                                  CHANGE YOUR SPRAY FREQUENCY
                                                                  Scheduling is also an important component of a successful
                                                                  pest management program. Using BCAs does not mean that
                                                                  sprays need to be eliminated entirely. If you are still looking
                                                                  to use less-compatible sprays, using them as hot spot
                                                                  treatments is a common strategy many growers employ.
                                                                  Hot spots represent situations where pest populations have
            BE AWARE OF THE MODE OF ACTION                        grown higher than BCAs alone can deal with. Growers can
            (MOA) AND CHEMICAL TYPE                               then choose to cease BCA application for a short period of
            OF YOUR SPRAYS                                        time, during which they apply one to three applications of
                                                                  an appropriate spray. These spray applications help knock
            Some MOAs are highly species specific, while others have   down the pest population to a point where BCAs can once
            broad-spectrum efficacy. Some classes of chemicals    again regain control
            in particular have great impacts on BCAs, such as
            pyrethroids, organophosphates, and carbamates. Oxidizers   Whether cutting back on sprays for environmental, worker
            and suffocants, though effective  pesticides, will also   health, or consumer demand reasons, BCAs offer an effective
            affect BCAs right alongside your pests. When possible,   supplement and preventative alternative to many light spray
            choose insecticidal products that are more species    programs. As discussed above, spray programs do not have
            specific, or where compatibility data is readily available.   to be all or nothing; making strategic changes to various
            Azadirachtin  products  such  as  Azatin  O,  for  example,   components in a spray program can quickly and relatively
            target specific insect  life  cycle activities. When drenched   painlessly result in a more BCA-friendly routine.
            into the soil, Azatin O specifically target insects that molt,
            such as aphids and thrips pupae, leaving other soil-level
            BCAs such as Hypoaspis miles unaffected.





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