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GRAPE GRO WING tinuum over time, improving from where we started and not worry as much about where we are on the continuum. IPM is about understanding a pest's population dynamics and figuring out how to manage it in a way that, like the definition states, "minimizes economic, environmental and health risks." I am going to limit my discussion to insects, because for one thing I am an entomolo- gist, and for another it is easier to visu- alize an insect population than a fungal pathogen population. Breaking it down to its most simple form, the size of an insect pest popula- tion at any given moment is a result of the number of births minus the number of deaths over time. If the birth rate is higher than the death rate the population will in- crease, and if the opposite is true it will decrease. If the pest population rises to a level where economic damage occurs, then clearly something should be done to reduce it. IPM involves the concept of economic threshold, which basically means that the pest population has reached a level where damage that it will cause exceeds the cost to control it. Births vs. deaths One of the biggest challenges in pest man- agement is to figure out what is making the pest's birth rate exceed the death rate to the point where the economic threshold is surpassed. When this occurs, the simple solution is to spray with a pesticide that in- stantly increases the death rate to the maxi- mum. However, history has shown us that this is only a short-term solution. A more robust approach is to find a solution that re- duces the pest population's birth rate and/ or increases its death rate over the long term without having to regularly apply pesticides. The IPM approach to managing a pest is trying to understand the factors that cause the population to exceed the economic threshold and how to influence those fac- tors so the population drops below it. This is often much easier said than done. Some- times it takes very expensive, sophisticated research to figure this out, and to be hon- est, there is a poor understanding of what regulates the populations of many of our pests. In the absence of this information, it is tempting to fall back on ecological principles that many of us learned either in school or later reading: A diverse ecosys- tem is more stable than a less diverse one; encouraging pests' natural enemies will re- duce the likelihood of pest problems; or a healthy plant is likely to have fewer pest problems than a stressed one. QSEE US AT UNIFIED, BOOTH #330 Flow Measurement & Control Solutions Sanitary & Industrial Turbine Meters Batch Controllers & Rate/Total Indicators Oscillating Piston Positive Displacement Meters NA VIGA TION Applications Barrel Filling Vessel Calibration Vessel Filling Water Monitoring: Vineyard and Grounds Juice Blending SO2 Injection via Positive Displacement Meter & Batch Controller 2825 W. Washington Stephenville, TX 76401 Phone: 254.968.2181 800.468.2526 www.fmcinvalco.com Winery Control SUSTAINABLE WINEMAKING WITH VINWIZARD'S LEADING EDGE TECHNOLOGY... ✓ Tank temperature control – the worlds most widely accepted ✓ Immediate and substantial power savings ✓ Add modules as required for total integrated winery control (pumpover, plant, water, crushpad, production software etc.) 1 Tank Control 2 Custom designed 3D visualization 3 Total control via screens tailored for your needs • New tank temperature smarts as requested by our international client base • Load Scheduler and Smart Load Control - new power saving functionality • VinWizard software replaces ageing SCADA - protects hardware investment Tel: 707 703 1861 Web: www.vinwizard.com QSEE US AT UNIFIED, BOOTH #1007 Wines Vines Annual Directory 02.indd 1 Wines & Vines JAnUARY 2011 127 10/26/10 9:56:05 AM FOR 2011 NEW