Pest identification is the first step in any pest management situation. Accurate identification is the most important step as misidentification is a common cause of control failure.

Insect identification is based on morphological features such as the structure of mouthparts, wings, legs, antennae, etc.

The type of damage observed in the field and where the pest is located on the plant will also help determine which pests are present.

Many insect pests have chewing mouthparts and eat plant tissue. Caterpillars of many butterflies and moths as well as larval or adult stages of several beetles feed on leaves, fruit, roots or other specific plant parts.

Most plants are also hosts to one or more species of aphids, leafhoppers or plant bugs. These insects have sucking mouthparts for puncturing plant tissues and sucking out sap. This causes damage to leaves, flowers or fruit.

Sucking insects can also cause crop losses by spreading diseases from infected to healthy plants. Typically, different pest species will attack a crop at a specific time of year or stage of plant growth or under specific environmental conditions. Other insects, such as wireworms, feed on roots.

Cutworms feed at ground level, girdling young seedlings.

Procedure

Farmers sometimes mistake symptoms of nutritional deficiencies – yellowing leaves, stunting, weak growth, poor production as indications of insect pests which are not true most at times. The most frustrating thing about pests is that you often don’t realize they have moved in.

Larger pests, such as mice or rats, are nocturnal so their night-time movements often go unnoticed. These situations play out to make identification more difficult and tricky.

Signs to Look Out For in Insect Attack

1. Droppings and Odour

Most insects and pests leave a tell-tale indication of their presence with their droppings. If you notice a collection of unknown droppings within your farm you should go on alert for a potential pest infestation.

If you see droppings, look in the vicinity for other pest or insect warning signs to identify a nest location or pathway into your home.

Obviously, once droppings start to amass, they will also develop a stronger smell. In some cases, you may notice a smell before you notice droppings. These are signs of the likely presence of insect pests on the farm or home.

2. Holes, Crevices and Tracks

Any gaps in the foundation or access points to your garage or home make it easy for pests to come and go as they please.

Even a small existing hole might be an invitation for a pest to dig a little deeper and burrow straight into your home.

Such activity may create smaller piles of dirt or other materials, so pay attention to both the exterior and interior of your home and garage for these warning signs.

Additionally, as insects and pests move around in search of water, food and mates they may also leave tracks that show their movement. These tracks can also be helpful in identifying how pests may have entered or exited your home.

3. Sounds and Activity

Larger pests, such as rats, mice and racoons tend to be most active at night. This means that you’re more likely to notice critter-like sounds such as whining, squeaking, scratching or scurrying as you settle down for the night or if you are awake in the middle of the night.

Typically, these types of sounds come from an area such as the walls or attic – these spaces are typically not frequented by humans and can sometimes provide an easy pest access point to your home.

To check for a presence of pests, make sure to look in crawlspaces, attics or any places where you heard sounds coming from.

Tools and Materials needed

The under listed items are required for proper identification;

Notebook
Magnifying glass
Camera
Jar (for collecting samples)
Insect field guide

Pest Management and Symptoms of Diseases on Crops

Procedure for identification involves the following steps;

1. Examine the Plant

If you suspect an insect is causing problems, examine the plant. Check the leaves, top and bottom, looking for insects, caterpillars, and egg masses.

As you touch the leaves, watch for scurrying or flying insects. Jot down notes, take a photo, or collect a sample so you can research the possible culprits using a field guide or gardening reference. Delay spraying until you have made positive identification.

Many insecticides will kill not only pests but also beneficial insects, including predatory insects that eat the pests and pollinators like honeybees.

2. Identify the Type of Pest

Entomologists (insect specialists) often categorize insects by how they feed. Chewing insectseat leaves. Symptoms include holes, ragged edges, and “skeletonizing” — eating the tissue between leaf veins.

Examples include weevils, caterpillars, flea beetles, and Japanese beetles. Look for the telltale frass (excrement) of the larger of these pests.

Sucking insectspierce a hole in plant tissue and suck out the fluids. Signs include stippling on foliage or silvery bronze leaves and discolored blooms.

Examples include spider mites, aphids, thrips, and leafhoppers. These pests often leave behind moltings – the outer skin they shed as they grow.

These signs as explained in steps 1 and 2 should be carefully assessed as warning signs of the presence of insect pests.

Also note that these insect warning signs are different from nutrient deficiency signs andd isease symptoms.

How to differentiate between nutrient deficiency signs, disease symptoms and insect pests damage

Symptom/signs	Disease	Nutrient deficiency/environmental stress	Insectpest incidence
Physical damage to crop	*	*	
Evenly distributed among Many plants	*	*	
Occur in clusters		*	
field
Localised, affects small number of plants	*	*	
Occur at specific time of the year	*	*	

Integrated Pest Management

Insect pests cause enormous loss to farms through direct and indirect invasion on various plant parts. Use of chemicals has been one of the conventional methods to reduce these losses; however, now-a-days due to various unwarranted side effects, pest management is relying upon many other options along with pesticides.

The integration of all these options is called IPM (Integrated Pest Management). Integrated Pest Management is a strategy to manage pests on the basis of a systems approach that looks at the whole farming ecosystem. This includes understanding how the pests interact with their plant hosts, with the general climatic conditions, plant health and nutrition and with each other.

Integrated Pest Management provides farmers with choices about how to manage pests safely and effectively.

Almost all farmers do at least some IPM through normal crop production practices. IPM utilizes a wide range of pest control strategies or tactics.

The goal of this strategy is to prevent pests from reaching economically or aesthetically damaging levels with the least risk to the environment.

Pesticide use is and will continue to be significant in food and fibber production, forestry, turf and landscape maintenance, and public health.

Pest management has shifted from relying heavily on pesticides to using an integrated approach based on pest assessment, decision making, and evaluation. Also, chemical pesticides are not always effective. Pests can become resistant to pesticides.

Furthermore, pests may survive in situations where the chemical does not reach pests, is washed off, is applied at an improper rate, or is applied at an improper life stage of the pest.

Disease Symptoms

Plant Disease is any abnormal condition that damages a plant and reduces its productivity or usefulness to man. Diseases and disorders of plants occur when normal plant function is disrupted.

Several types of microorganisms can cause a reduction in plant health including fungi, bacteria, virus, and nematodes.

The occurrence and prevalence of plant diseases vary from season to season, depending on the presence of the pathogen, environmental conditions, and the crops and varieties grown.

Environmental stress, nutrient deficiency symptoms resemble disease situations, and so care should be taken to distinguish between these symptoms.

For plant diseases, the steps enumerated below will assist to identify the type of disease and appropriate control measure.

Using a shovel, dig out both healthy and symptomatic plants with all possible roots attached.

Examine the plant as a whole, noting differences between the two.

Look for signs of disease like knots, blackened areas or rot on the root system, discoloration in the inner stem tissue, stem lesions, leaf spots, cankers/blisters, and leaf malformation.

Collect sample and send to a plant diagnostic lab for testing and confirmation

In conclusion, identification of insect pests signs could be tricky as some of the insects enter the crop field to cause damage in the night. Some hide underneath of the leaves or even under the shade of other bigger plants.

This calls for continuous monitoring and surveillance with attempts to catch, study and identify. Pest management has shifted from relying heavily on pesticides to using an integrated approach based on pest assessment, decision making, and evaluation. Proper identification of insect pests warning signs will help in proffering the right solution to its control.

Working Exercise

Take for instance a typical maize plant and identify the insect pests at various stages of growth and proffer solution.

Key to identification of insect pests of maize

Maize growth stage	Part of plant affected	Insect pests	Control measure
Seed	seeds	Seed corn maggots, Wireworms
Young seedling	Foliage	Cutworms, Thrips, Flea beetles, Diabrotica beetles, Leafhoppers, Lesser cornstalk borer, Fall armyworm, Spider mites, Maize whorl maggots, Borers, Termites , borers, Flea beetles
Vegetative growth	Stem, leaves	Borers, Grasshoppers, Maize whorl maggots, Fall armyworm, Leafhoppers, Borers, Termites

2) What environmentally friendly control measure would you use for the under listed pest situation

Pest	Host	Control measure
Green mites	Cassava, yam, tree crops	Use natural enemies like predatory hosts
mealybug	Cassava, yam, tree crops	Plant flowering herbs as intercrop and or perimeter crops help build- up the population of natural enemies.
Termites	All crops	Burning plant residues on top of termites’ mound would suffocate them.
White flies	Fiber crops, vegetables, fruit trees, and ornamentals.	Neem leaf extract, Neem seed powder extract
mosaic virus, leaf spot	Vegetables, tuber crops, tree crops etc.	Control whiteflies as they are the carriers of the disease.
Bacterial soft rot	Vegetables, tuber crops, tree crops etc.	Avoid water logged areas, practice rotation, use healthy planting materials
leaf spot	Vegetables, tuber crops, tree crops etc.	use healthy planting materials, destroy infested materials, cultural practices
mosaic virus	Vegetables, tuber crops, tree crops etc.	use healthy planting materials, cultural practices