University of New Hampshire
OP-9: Integrated Pest Management

UNH Facilities personnel are responsible for exterior pest monitoring and control on the UNH campus grounds. Crews have worked over the years to try to avoid pesticide use. The following protocols are in place in the University’s IPM Program and are used by Facilities staff to determine the appropriate action when an insect pest is detected.

Insecticides: The University of New Hampshire’s IPM practices include no regular spraying of insecticides on trees and shrubs for pests. When a major pest outbreak does occur and spraying is warranted, the most environmentally friendly method is used that will still give good success of control. For the 20 years between 1979 and 1999, damage from insect pests was low enough so as not to exceed threshold levels of insect damage, therefore requiring little insecticidal spraying. However, in 1999, a new turf pest moved into the area making it necessary to increase monitoring efforts and targeted spraying with species-specific insecticides. These efforts allowed Grounds and Roads crews to choose the least-toxic effective material for control and time the applications to minimize the amount of material required. This also releases fewer chemicals into the ground, the water supply, and the air. It has also greatly reduced the chemical exposure to the Grounds and Roads crews who are in charge of treating these problem areas, as well as anyone who uses the University grounds. Also, until 2000, any insecticide that was used on campus grounds was biological. Biological insecticides are based on living entomopathogenic (infecting insects) organisms, usually bacteria, fungi or viruses, or which contain entomopathogenic products from such organisms. They are often the least toxic species-specific option for controlling insect pests.

Herbicides: If an herbicide is deemed necessary, spot treatments instead of area-wide applications are performed, thereby killing only the targeted plant. When possible, herbicides are applied while weeds are small to reduce the amount of material used and to prevent seed production.

Fungicides: To date, UNH Facilities personnel do not apply fungicides on campus grounds.

On-campus Partnership: In 1999, the European chafer, a turf pest relatively new to New England arrived on the grounds of UNH. The immature (grub) stage of this beetle is very destructive to turf. Grubs feed mainly on the roots of grasses often killing the plant. UNH Cooperative Extension Specialist Stanley Swier and UNH Facilities Gardener Robert Bennett worked together on an IPM Program specifically to control the European chafer. The monitoring aspect of the program involves constantly updating maps of UNH grounds where European chafer grub damage has occurred. Maps from past and present years are then compared to determine where treatment may be necessary. Unfortunately, because the European chafer is highly destructive in turf, an insecticide is the only effective control measure. Facilitiespersonnel use the least-toxic effective material available to treat for the insect. The use of the detailed maps showing turf damage enables a timely application of this less toxic pesticide, preventing use of a more toxic material that would be required for control later in the insect’s life cycle.

On the Cutting Edge: UNH Cooperative Extension Specialist Stanley Swier has also conducted research with DuPont for the past 5 years working on a new low-risk insecticide that will be available for use soon. The insecticide, called Acelepryn, contains a new active ingredient and mode of action that will offer turf professionals consistent performance and low application rates, along with an excellent toxicological and environmental profile. Acelepryn has been classified as a reduced risk insecticide by the EPA, which dictates that there is extremely low mammalian, honeybee, fish, and bird toxicity. Through Stanley Swier’s work with DuPont, UNH may well be one of the first universities to use Acelepryn to reduce European chafer grubs on campus grounds as part of our IPM program.