Sandra McDougall, Tony Napier, Joe Valenzisi, and Andrew Watson
NSW Agriculture, Yanco, NSW Australia
2002, 154 pp., soft cover
ISBN: 0-7347-13460

If you have ever wondered about integrated pest management (IPM) on vegetable crops "Down Under," here is your chance to view a practical handbook on pest management for Australian lettuce production. The theme of the book is the integration of pest management practices with mutually beneficial, economical, and environmentally friendly solutions for pest control. Although the title would lead one to believe that this is a book for the IPM practitioner, it is also of value to extension programs. It is well compiled and edited and could serve as a valuable source of accurate and concise information for an undergraduate student course in IPM, or as a supplemental text book.

This small book with 154 pages, 8 chapters, 7 appendixes, a resources guide, a glossary, and an index is ideally arranged, starting with an explanation of the purpose of the guide. The first chapter, "What is IPM?", defines IPM and its benefits, factors for implementation, and pest management strategies. The next chapter, "Tools for IPM," covers cultural control, biological control, chemical control, host plant resistance, and mechanical control.

The Crop Monitoring chapter includes information about sampling tools and techniques, sampling procedures, economic injury level, and action threshold. The Pesticide Resistance chapter describes pest management practices that can lead to resistance in insects, as well as insect resistance management strategies; but it offers little information on pesticide resistance mechanisms and pesticide resistance management for weeds and plant pathogens. The Insect Pest Management chapter details the management of 17 insect pests. This chapter also provides limited information on release of commercially available Trichograma sp. wasps and information about natural enemies, such as beneficial insects and insect pathogens, as well as insects attacked by the natural enemies. The Lettuce Diseases and their Management chapter covers 14 pathogenic diseases with some discussion of abiotic diseases. The Weeds chapter describes 37 species of weeds but gives very limited information for the control of specific weed species.

The chapter on Principles of Spray Application is very complete, with information on sprayer calibration and on obtaining thorough coverage of the spray target for insect, disease, and weed management. This chapter also discusses various aspects of spray equipment including nozzle types and their interaction with droplet size; the interactions of droplet size with spray coverage and spray drift; aerial and ground applicators, their interaction with coverage and spray drift; and spray boom configurations and the interaction with coverage and spray drift. Furthermore, this chapter discusses water quality and the interaction with pesticide efficacy, and the incompatibility problems of antagonism and phytotoxicity associated with mixing two or more pesticide products.

The strengths of the book are the large format, many useful figures, tables, illustrations, and 200 color photographs illustrating pests, beneficial insects, traps, other sampling equipment, cultivation equipment, and spray equipment. Information in the book is clear, concise, and practical for lettuce production IPM in Australia and worldwide. Summary tables follow in-depth information on the pest description, life cycle, damage to the crop, and pest management practices. A resource section aids IPM practitioners and students with references to books and Web sites on IPM, insects diseases, weeds, pesticides, sources of IPM tools, pheromones, seed companies, pesticide registration and safety training, plant pest diagnostic laboratories, and spray equipment supplies.

The seven appendices include an example of a crop monitoring report; information on insecticide, fungicide and herbicide groups; equations and information on sprayer calibration; an explanation of spray equipment cleaning and decontamination; and an example of spray record keeping. The book is complete with a glossary and a comprehensive subject index.

Weaknesses of the book are the lack of information in vertebrate pest IPM, regulatory controls, detailed management of specific weed species, and in-depth biology of the pests and their relationship with the environment. To review lettuce IPM practices for vertebrate pests and an in-depth coverage of weed management, refer to Integrated Pest Management for Cole Crops and Lettuce (University of California Statewide Pest Management Project, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Publication 3307, 1992); note, however, that the information will not be totally applicable to lettuce production in Australia because of differences in pest species.

This book provides a good overview of the IPM technologies, pest management tactics and regulations being implemented in Australia for lettuce production. The book is practical for the IPM practitioner because the paper quality should hold up well to field conditions of water droplets from the crops and alcohol spills if they are attended to quickly.

Eric T. Natwick
University of California
Cooperative Extension
Holtville, CA
American Entomologist
Vol. 49, No.3, Fall 2003