Strip intercropping seeks to capture the biological efficiency of intercropping in traditional agricultural systems and is compatible with agricultural equipment used in the U.S. This efficiency stems from complementary use of resources by constituent crops and is a function of crop selection, strip width and orientation, weed control, and other factors. Strip intercropping requires a high level of management; further, some reports suggest the gains and losses more-or-less balance in actual production situations. These questions are best addressed by the performance of strip intercropping as implemented by farmers in production situations. Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) members have worked with Iowa State University agronomists to evaluate strip intercropping. For three years six farmers compared strip intercropping to field blocks of individual crops. The strip intercrop systems employed three crops: corn, soybeans, and small grains with a forage legume underseeding. The comparison systems, crops grown in sole-crop blocks, consisted of the same three crops on four farms (planting pattern comparison) or, on two farms, just corn and soybeans in rotation (systems comparison). Yields and field operations were recorded and entered in the Iowa State University Crop EnterpriseRecord System (CER) to derive gross profit, total production cost, and net profit for each crop component and for each cropping system on every farm. Strip intercropping net profit was generally greater than that infield blocks, and intercropping compared favorably with CER results obtained from corn-soybean rotations on other farms around Iowa. Land equivalent ratios (LER) were usually greater than 1.0, indicating satisfactory biological efficiency. Despite occasional problems, in this set of 18 site-years strip intercropping was associated with greater stability of net profit.
Uniform and controlled applications of insecticides constitute a fundamental aspect of applied research on performance of insecticides. We describe and evaluate a spraying device made from an artist airbrush and a soda bottle, the "bottle sprayer," which can be used to apply insecticide formulations both under laboratory and field conditions. Using the bottle sprayer in conjunction with quantitative behavioral analysis, it was shown that (1) miticides can significantly affect movement patterns and (2) it is possible to quantify mite repellency to miticides. The combination of controlled sprays to portions of trial arenas and quantification of behavioral responses by individual spider mites may be used to address a wide range of applied questions related to spider mite ecology. We used the bottle sprayer to apply water on water-sensitive cards and used simple image analysis techniques to correlate average reflectance per pixels (quadratic reflectance in blue color band) with water dose applied. Consequently, we were able to propose a method to quantify dose applied based on average color on water-sensitive cards. The spray card analysis based on data generated with the bottle sprayer was used to interpret spray card data obtained from spray applications in a commercial potato, Solanum tuberosum L., field and to discuss the possibility of developing quality control procedures for insecticide applications in field crops.
Sticky traps baited with sex pheromone are the most common trapping devices used in monitoring of moth pests in food warehouses and food processing. However, these traps only capture males, and it is debatable whether captures of male moths can be used as spatio‐temporal indicators of hot spots of conspecific larvae (only larvae are responsible for damage to food products). Water has been documented as highly attractive to stored product moths, and here we present the first performance data on water bottles as monitoring devices. On average, water bottles caught 15 times more Indianmeal moths [Plodia interpunctella (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)] than unbaited sticky traps and 74 times more moths than probe traps. We showed that hole size in water bottles had negligible effect on their trapping performance in a naturally infested peanut warehouse. Experimental evaluation of water loss over time showed that smaller holes dramatically reduced water evaporation (less frequent service required), and detergent can be added to the water to reduce moth decomposition without adversely affecting water attractiveness (trap performance). Trap captures of males and females were linearly correlated, and based on quantitative statistical analysis [Spatial Analysis by Distance IndicEs (SADIE)], we showed that weekly captures of the two sexes were spatially correlated. The applied implications of using water bottles in improved IPM of moths in food facilities are discussed.
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