SHEALTIEL-HARPAZ, L.

The determination of pest populations is an essential part of area-wide integrated pest management to wisely respond to a variety of threats. Information regarding wide area population trends, previous control measures and other environmental parameters could improve decision making, reduce pesticide use and delay the acquired pest resistance to applications. As of now, dozens of scouts are employed by individuals or organizations to monitor pests in field crops plantations and controlled greenhouses. Pest control decisions are based on observations that are often translated into recommendations to the growers and then lost. A working data collection system was developed in collaboration with pest scouts, to create a common language among the solitary scouts. This system was implemented to enable the collection of data from field scouts in wide areas into a central database. The system employed cellular phones and the Internet to transmit data mainly from field scouts to a central data base, with a limited feedback. For reliable wide area IPM is required to establish quantification of pest population which takes into account the differences in estimation not only among scouts but also among crops. The severity of pest population is not necessarily similar when evaluating the population in one crop compared to another. Therefore, there is a need to establish and assimilate standardized estimates of pest populations. A unified measure was developed to allow estimation of pest infestation across crops thus making it possible to evaluate the situation and its dynamics over a wide area. The calculation of the measure is done on the data server, and takes into account the crop stand, the pest and method of scouting. The measure of pest population is now being used to evaluate the method and its benefits.