By David Goldstein, Ventura County Public Works Agency –
Are you bugged by bugs, but want to avoid poison in your garden that could harm your pets or kids? Do you want to stop pests from entering your home and weeds from competing with your vegetable plants, while protecting critical pollinators?
UC Master Gardeners of Ventura County can help you practice Integrated Pest Management (IPM), an approach to controlling weeds and pests, based on using the least toxic approaches that are still effective. As a program of the University of California, master gardeners teach free classes, maintain 10 demonstration gardens, and administer many programs described on their website at www.ceventura.ucanr.edu/Gardening, but the most basic, one-on-one form of assistance they provide is through the master gardener help desk. The help used to be accessed by phone, but now, assistance is provided through email.
According to Jill Tyler, Program Coordinator, 175 highly trained volunteers meet annual obligations of at least 25 service hours and 12 continuing education hours per year to remain certified as master gardeners, and some have volunteered thousands of hours. They consult with local residents on a variety of topics, but always with an emphasis on minimizing the use of harmful pesticides and herbicides. For example, if you email a picture of something you think is a weed to mgventura@ucdavis.edu, a master gardener will reply with an identification of the plant and least toxic control methods. For pests, I once complained to the master gardeners help desk about snails attacking the plants of my raised beds, and the advice I received was correct. The snails were stopped by a strip of copper, purchased from my local gardening store.
The master gardeners’ Invasive and Beneficial Outreach Group has been particularly helpful recently in using IPM to address critical local concerns such as the Asian Citrus Psyllid, Mediterranean fruit fly, and Aedes mosquitos — invasive pests threatening both our agricultural industry and public health. Last month the master gardener program won an award from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, and last week, the program won recognition from the Ventura County Board of Supervisors for contributions to Integrated Pest Management.
The agency’s Parks Department has also transitioned to IPM over the past few years. For example, following a misapplication of herbicide, tragically resulting in tree deaths at Soule Park two years ago, the Parks Department switched to manual weed removal, including use of string trimmers, with labor provided by the Probation Department.
Sometimes, fighting one type of pest requires targeting another. For example, when mealy bugs were found devouring vulnerable plants at a Public Works habitat restoration site, the IPM answer was to target ants, which “farm” the mealy bugs. Crews used boric-acid bait in stations inaccessible to bees or butter flies. The acid is toxic to the ants but unlikely to harm other species.
Reservations are available for the following classes taught by Master Gardeners of Ventura County, which include IPM instruction:
• March 18 in Ventura and March 20 in Simi Valley: Beans and squash success
• March 20 in Oxnard: Planning for Spring and Summer
• March 22 in Ojai and March 25 in Santa Paula: Start your summer vegetable garden
On the net:
• https://ceventura.ucanr.edu/Gardening
• https://ucanr.edu/sites/VCMG/•index.cfm sign up for classes
• https://youtu.be/9P89nSpKlK0?si=psvtgGnHZo_a8yn0awardvideo
• http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu
