SURVEY OF INTEGRATED PEST-MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN CENTRAL ILLINOIS

The Clinton Administration set a goal to develop and implement integra ted pest management (IPM) programs on 75% of the managed acres in the USA by the year 2000. In order to document current IPM practices and i dentify limitations to further adoption, a direct mail survey was sent to 988 farmers in eight central Illinois counties. Survey results ind icated that 65% of the farmers hired a custom herbicide applicator, bu t only 7% hired a professional crop scout to monitor their fields. For ty one percent of the farmers reported they scout their fields weekly, while an additional 35% said they scout fields at least two to three times per growing season, Only 3% of the farmers said they seldom or n ever scout their fields. Economic thresholds were used to make insect control decisions by 34% of the farmers. In contrast, only 9% of farme rs used economic thresholds as a basis for weed management, Sixty nine percent of the farmers responding to the survey were very concerned a bout the effects of pesticides on applicator health. Understanding how farmers make their pest management decisions may help identify curren t barriers to the successful adoption of IPM.