16 



Econ. Entomol. 65: 117-119. 



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•k i< -k -k -k 



A NEW PROGRAM FOR INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT OF STRAWBERRIES 



IN MASSACHUSETTS 



Daniel R. Cooley, Karen Hauschild, and Sonia Schloemann 

 University of Massachusetts 



Last fall, -an integrated pest management program for strawberries was 

 funded by the University of Massachusetts Integrated Pest Management (IPM) 

 program. This article is intended to give a brief outline of the proposed 

 program, and invite comments from interested parties. 



Strawberries offer a unique opportunity for integrated pest management, 

 for a number of reasons. Note that strawberries suffer important damage from 

 all pests: diseases, weeds, and insects. We intend to use the term pest in its 

 broadest sense, encompassing any agent which necessitates pesticide 

 applications . 



In assessing the potential for strawberry IPM, we saw that while acreage 

 on a given farm is not generally large, the number of small farms producing 

 strawberries has steadily increased in recent years. As a result, there are a 

 number of new strawberry growers in the state. In addition, strawberries 

 require relatively frequent applications of pesticides in order to produce 

 well. This situation is complicated because only a few fungicides are 

 registered for use on strawberries, and the future utility of these compounds 

 is threatened because registration may be removed, fungus resistance has 

 developed, some of the pesticides used on strawberries are potential 

 groundwater contaminants, and some may affect non-target beneficial insects. 

 Also, strawberry growers frequently sell their crop to "pick-your-own" 

 customers, giving the public exposure to not just the product, but the fields 

 in which it is grown. And finally, many strawberry pests have also been studied 

 in recent years, either on strawberry or as pests of other crops. The general 

 biology and suggestions for innovative management strategies for these pests 

 have been developed, but have not been applied generally to commercial 

 strawberry production. Massachusetts is in a strong position to use this 

 knowledge since the three regional fruit agents all have an active interest and 

 good backgrounds in small fruit. 



