Integrated pest control measures on vegetables

(Baonghean) -Winter crop is one of the main vegetable production seasons of the year. To effectively control pests on vegetables, farmers should apply integrated pest management (IPM) measures, which means combining 4 measures to reduce pests to the lowest density, including: cultivation, manual, biological and chemical measures.

This measure helps reduce the use of pesticides, avoiding the widespread and improper use of pesticides, affecting the health of consumers as well as producers.

1- Cultivation measures:

- Land preparation: The first step in cultivation is to choose the soil. Most vegetables are suitable for growing in soil with a pH of 5 - 7, with good moisture retention and drainage. Then, proceed to loosen the soil and leave it fallow for at least 5 - 7 days, helping the soil to be loose, airy and the plants to easily absorb nutrients in the soil, while killing some pathogens and weeds remaining in the soil from the previous crop.

- Crop rotation and intercropping: Choose vegetable varieties with clear origin and free of disease. Apply crop rotation with plants of different families, preferably rice. Farmers can also intercrop with plants of different families.

- Plant traps: Plant traps should be used to attract or repel pests.

During the process of caring for vegetables, it is necessary to fertilize and water properly. Depending on the type of plant and the growing time, apply different watering methods such as spraying, furrow irrigation, drip irrigation, watering enough moisture without standing water... to help vegetables grow well and limit pests and diseases on vegetables.

2. Manual method:

Regularly clean the fields, remove old leaves, leaves with pests, diseased plants and plant residues, collect and destroy them. Regularly check to remove newly hatched egg nests and kill pupae of pests, limit the use of chemicals. In addition, yellow or blue sticky traps can be used to trap some winged adults such as aphids, leaf miners, fruit borers, flea beetles, etc. that harm many types of plants. These traps are low cost and can be made from recycled materials. The trap should be placed at a height of 40 - 60cm from the base of the tree for best results.

3. Biological measures:

It is a measure to take advantage of natural enemies to destroy pests in the fields. To do so, it is necessary to protect natural enemies of vegetable pests such as aphids, pests; parasitic wasps on eggs, larvae, pupae of pests; ants, spiders... that eat pests; antagonistic fungi: Trichoderma, Beauveria... To protect these beneficial species, chemicals should not be used. In addition, farmers can use freromol traps hung in vegetable fields to attract adult females to the traps without mating, laying eggs and forming worms. This type of trap is especially effective against pests that cannot be detected early by conventional methods, such as armyworms, whitefly caterpillars, silkworms, smooth armyworms on vegetables, flowers, beans, peanuts, grapes, cotton...

How to set the trap: Use a plastic bottle or a disposable plastic bowl, 18-22cm in diameter, tie the bait to a steel wire in a hanging style, then pour in 1/3 of the bowl's volume of water mixed with a little soap. The soap will block the breathing holes of butterflies when they fly into the trap and fall into the water, causing them to die very quickly. For low plants such as kohlrabi, cabbage, onions, etc., place the trap at a position 20-30cm higher than the surface of the canopy in the field. For plants such as climbing beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc., hang the trap close to the surface of the trellis to facilitate the spread of feromol. Feromol baits are effective in attracting pests for at least 21-24 days. It is best to replace the feromol bait periodically every 20 days from the date of use. Traps should be set continuously from planting to harvest. Check the traps daily to remove dead butterflies and add more soapy water as needed.

4. Chemical measures:

If pests are found to exceed the harmful threshold and cannot be controlled by the above 3 measures, then spraying chemicals should be used, giving priority to biological and herbal pesticides. For pests that are resistant to pesticides such as silkworms and red spider mites, it is necessary to use pesticides in rotation. Effective pesticides should not be used more than twice, following the 4 right principles (right pesticide, right concentration, right time and right method).

- For diseases: The level of disease must be investigated every 7 days at 5 diagonal points in the field. Only when the number of leaves on the tree infected with the disease is 5-10% can pesticides be used for prevention. In particular, it is necessary to comply with the quarantine period for each type of pesticide to ensure food safety and hygiene.

Phu Huong (st)