How can a diagnostic lab help with Integrated Pest Management? What's the best way to provide samples to a lab to get the most accurate test results? Those are just some of the questions answered in a new video series developed for Montana State University Extension’s Schutter Diagnostic Lab.

The lab is the core of MSU’s IPM program. The first three installments of the series of educational videos outlining the services the lab provides were released late in 2019.

The lab works closely with MSU’s College of Agriculture and helps growers identify and manage pest problems using a range of methods beyond relying simply on pesticides. This IPM approach seeks to incorporate knowledge of pest life cycles and regional environments to prevent diseases and combat insects.

Tactics deployed as part of the IPM program include placing preventive traps for insects and using biocontrols such as insect-eating wasps. There are even simple tactics for greenhouses, like installing door sweeps.

Specialists at Schutter Lab analyze an average of 3,000 samples per year to identify plants, insect pests, crop diseases and environmental stressors, and then they recommend management strategies. The lab serves all of Montana, including its seven reservations and several surrounding states.

Mary Burrows, a lab scientist at Schutter Lab, explains that each identification is considered “an opportunity to educate the client. The first step in IPM is identifying the pest, but we do pesticide safety education, community outreach and urban agriculture, too.”

Production partner

The videos were produced by Montana PBS and came in response to requests from Montana growers for more easily accessible educational content.

Burrows says the first three videos highlight success stories of the IPM program. The first highlights the adoption of the program at Bozeman’s Streamline Farm to aid growing tomatoes year-round.

The second explains how the Museum of the Rockies uses IPM to protect sensitive displays and artifacts.

The third video explains how to submit a sample to the lab for diagnosis properly. In this video, MSU’s Champ the Bobcat mascot and Don Mathre, an emeritus professor, have starring roles.

Sarah Eilers, manager of the IPM program, comments: “Our stakeholders mentioned that, as people are using their phones more, they were wanting access to easier content. Everyone kept saying they wanted videos, and these were the answer to that.”

Burrows says Schutter Lab often helps identify trends in plant pests and diseases in the region. For instance, if a type of fungal plant disease develops resistance to fungicides, it can spread to susceptible plants nearby and cause significant damage. An analysis from the lab, and watchful producers who send in samples, can help avoid crop losses through identification and education.

The lab’s scientists also work with plant breeders in the College of Agriculture to develop varieties of barley, winter and spring wheat, and other crops, adapted to various threats in the state.

Check out the first three videos at bit.ly/MSUextyoutube.

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