Best Management Practices

Sanitation

• Keep nursery and loading areas clean, litter and weed free, and properly dispose of waste. - *
• For plants, avoid heat and moisture stress - *
• Divert soil and water pathways from infected areas away from nursery -
• Properly disinfect surfaces that come in contact with plants and soil including equipment, propagation beds; workers should wear clean clothes and shoes and use gloves while handling plants -
• Use clean media and sterilize used pots, trays, and flats. - *
• Avoid monocultures by mixing susceptible and hardy plants -
• Keep records of incoming and outgoing stock as well as nursery maintenance and field history - *
• Conduct frequent in-house inspections - *
• Encourage natural predators and parasites -
• Rotate insecticides/fungicide chemical families - *
• Prevent plant blow-down by creating wind breaks - *
• Deficient or excess fertilizer can make plants weak and create ideal conditions for certain pests and pathogens. - *

nursery layout

• Keep nursery and loading areas clean, litter and weed free, and properly dispose of waste. - *
• For plants, avoid heat and moisture stress - *
• Divert soil and water pathways from infected areas away from nursery -
• Properly disinfect surfaces that come in contact with plants and soil including equipment, propagation beds; workers should wear clean clothes and shoes and use gloves while handling plants -
• Use clean media and sterilize used pots, trays, and flats. - *
• Avoid monocultures by mixing susceptible and hardy plants -
• Keep records of incoming and outgoing stock as well as nursery maintenance and field history - *
• Conduct frequent in-house inspections - *
• Encourage natural predators and parasites -
• Rotate insecticides/fungicide chemical families - *
• Prevent plant blow-down by creating wind breaks - *
• Deficient or excess fertilizer can make plants weak and create ideal conditions for certain pests and pathogens. - *

and cultural practices

• Keep nursery and loading areas clean, litter and weed free, and properly dispose of waste. - *
• For plants, avoid heat and moisture stress - *
• Divert soil and water pathways from infected areas away from nursery -
• Properly disinfect surfaces that come in contact with plants and soil including equipment, propagation beds; workers should wear clean clothes and shoes and use gloves while handling plants -
• Use clean media and sterilize used pots, trays, and flats. - *
• Avoid monocultures by mixing susceptible and hardy plants -
• Keep records of incoming and outgoing stock as well as nursery maintenance and field history - *
• Conduct frequent in-house inspections - *
• Encourage natural predators and parasites -
• Rotate insecticides/fungicide chemical families - *
• Prevent plant blow-down by creating wind breaks - *
• Deficient or excess fertilizer can make plants weak and create ideal conditions for certain pests and pathogens. - *

Sanitation, nursery layout, and cultural practices

• Keep nursery and loading areas clean, litter and weed free, and properly dispose of waste. - *
• For plants, avoid heat and moisture stress - *
• Divert soil and water pathways from infected areas away from nursery -
• Properly disinfect surfaces that come in contact with plants and soil including equipment, propagation beds; workers should wear clean clothes and shoes and use gloves while handling plants -
• Use clean media and sterilize used pots, trays, and flats. - *
• Avoid monocultures by mixing susceptible and hardy plants -
• Keep records of incoming and outgoing stock as well as nursery maintenance and field history - *
• Conduct frequent in-house inspections - *
• Encourage natural predators and parasites -
• Rotate insecticides/fungicide chemical families - *
• Prevent plant blow-down by creating wind breaks - *
• Deficient or excess fertilizer can make plants weak and create ideal conditions for certain pests and pathogens. - *

Exclusion

• Create physical barriers to exclude pests. -
• Clean mechanical equipment to prevent the spread of soil-borne pests and pathogens -
• Make sure all stock you receive is clean in order to exclude pests and pathogens. Create an isolation area to store new stock. - *
• Plants collected from the wild could carry pests and pathogens. Self-propagation of new plants can prevent introductions. - *
• Visually inspect all incoming stock; Inspect before shipping and upon receiving shipments. - *
• Monitor high risk plants on borders and be aware of nearby nursery pest status - *
• Treat plant wounds to prevent infection/infestation. Pretreat plants before taking cuttings -
• Minimize contact of branches and soil and keeps areas clear around stock to keep pest from climbing plants -
• Training is available for many pests and diseases which will help employees recognize and manage problems -
• Treatment timing can be determined for many pests and diseases using Degree-days -

Trapping and Monitoring

• Conduct a trapping and detection program using yellow sticky traps -
• Beat/tap sampling -
• Sweep net monitoring -
• Black light traps -
• Trapping and detection using pyramid traps and emergence traps -
• Tissue and soil sampling -
• Monitoring and detection using pitfall traps -
• Monitor using cover boards -
• Vacuum sampling -
• Take bioaccoustic measurements to determine infestations of trunks -
• Use vane traps -
• Pheromone traps -

Minimizing Spread

• Isolate infested plant material -
• Remove and destroy infested/diseased nursery stock -
• Defoliate and destroy leaves if an infection is suspected -
• Remove potential hosts from the landscape -
• Wash and/or sanitize shoes, equipment, and hands after entering an infected area -
• The use of fabric mulches to prevent pupation and emergence of insects with life stages in the soil -

Treatments

• Spot treatment with pesticides - *
• Use commercial biological control agents -
• Mating disruption -
• Baits -
• Chemically treat susceptible plants before taking cuttings -
• Manual removal -

* indicates a common or universal best management practice that can be applied to all selected pests.