(soft music) Hey Jarrell, what are you doing?

Oh, hey Michael.

I noticed some pests on these plants.

I'd figure I'd hit it with some pesticides.

Pesticides?

Are the bugs harming the plants?

I'm not entirely sure, but I thought I would do this before they had a chance to harm the plants.

Okay.

I want you to put the bottle down.

Okay.

And step away from the plants.

Okay.

All right.

We're talking pest management, today on "Spotlight Earth."

(soft music continues) (soft music continues) Like Jarrell, you might think chemical sprays are the only way to stop pesky pest infestations.

But those sprays are only one part of pest management.

Pest management is a larger set of methods to reduce the impact of pests, like insects, fungi, and weeds on land or in livestock.

Pesticides are chemical or biological substances that repel, injure, or kill pests.

For most of modern history, we have relied on pesticides to combat insects, herbicides to remove plants like weeds, and fungicides to remove fungi.

Scientists design most pesticides to be applied as sprays or dust, but there are also pesticides that are granules, fogs and baits.

Pesticides are commonly used in farming to prevent pests from harming crops.

They are also used in residential areas to make living conditions more comfortable and safe.

Pesticides also play an important role in helping to keep insects and other pests off of food, and in controlling the number of disease carrying insects that spread illnesses like West Nile virus, Lyme disease, and malaria.

In the past, we used more hard pesticides that retained their toxicity for a long time and moved up through the food chain, things like DDT.

Now, most pesticides are made to dissipate or break down after they are applied.

However, as they break down, they can form new chemicals and can be carried to other areas by rain or other precipitation.

When overused, used incorrectly, or used in isolation, they can also have widespread or unintended effects on ecosystems.

But chemical pesticides are just one form of pest management.

Let's check in at the Hampton Roads Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Virginia Beach to talk to Jarrell and some of the experts there.

Thanks, Michael.

This Virginia Tech Research Center is filled with passionate professionals that are looking at sustainable ways to get the most out of agriculture, including ways to deal with pests.

(calm music) Welcome to the Hampton Roads Agricultural Research and Extension Center.

We're part of Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech has 11 research stations.

Ours is devoted to the turf grass nursery landscape, small fruit industries.

Our mission is to work with the horticultural crop industry, trying to improve production practices through optimum pest management, optimum fertilization, choice of cultivars, things to improve profitability, sustainability of the industries that we work with.

(calm music continues) (camera shutter clicks) What I do, it's entomology.

That means the study of insects.

My laboratory focus on providing science-based solutions to growers in the nursery, and also the landscape and the turf industries.

We are really focused on promoting IPM, integrated pest management, meaning multiple things that you can do and not only rely on insecticides.

Insecticides will be actually the last option while you're looking into lowering those pest populations.

So while we start, it's cultural control, like trying to promote plant health.

Good irrigation, good fertilization, good sanitation, good pruning.

Then the next one will be biological control.

How can we promote other insects to feed on those pests?

We have a project using drones to release beneficials.

So basically what happened is we use the drones to automate the dropping of the beneficials to feed on soft body insects.

(calm music continues) The next one that we can do, it's all this behavioral and different other things like pheromones, attract and kill, attractants, repellents, and all these different compounds.

And the last but not least, but it's still part of the IPM program, is the use of chemicals, in this case, insecticides.

We have the broad spectrum insecticides that are basically kill everything on contact.

And then we have the more selective ones that we really want to promote and use.

And that's what we're trying to promote, to use all those multiple strategies to do pest management.

So what we trying to do is minimize the risk for not only the economics, because agriculture is a business, our health as humans, right?

And also the environment.

So reducing all those risks, doing multiple tactics is what we're trying to thrive.

Science-based solutions is what we're trying to do here in Virginia Tech.

We'll have more from here a little bit later in the episode, but for now, let's head back and bug Michael in the studio and learn a little bit more about pesticides.

Thanks, Jarrell.

Yes, we haven't discussed two of the largest problems with the overuse of pesticides yet.

The first is that pesticides only work for a limited time period.

Pesticides usually eliminate some, but not all of a population of pests.

Those remaining pests are resistant to the pesticide and survive to reproduce, passing on their resistance to their offspring.

As short generations pass, the population of pests can become completely resistant to the pesticide.

Oftentimes, people will use an ever increasing amount of pesticide in an attempt to overcome this resistance.

We call this the pesticide treadmill.

The second problem is that pesticides can cause damage to ecosystems.

While a pesticide may be designed to target one pest species, it may inadvertently kill another similar species.

When pesticides build up in animals higher in the food chain, they can kill the animal or prevent it from reproducing.

Many pesticides are also highly toxic to humans, and we are also part of the food chain.

The people who work with pesticides are also at risk.

These are a few direct effects of pesticide use.

You may have heard of organic agriculture or seen food labeled as organic.

This label shows that farmers and businesses have met very strict standards in how they produce their products.

It is a legal certification.

Organic producers are not allowed to use synthetic pesticides in their agricultural systems.

They use pesticides that are derived from natural sources and are lightly processed, things like insecticidal soap, neem, and the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis.

The belief is that organic agriculture, using only natural pesticides, will minimize the negative impacts of modern agriculture on ecosystems and human health.

Synthetic pesticides have other indirect effects too.

To learn more, let's head back to the Hampton Roads Agricultural Research and Extension Center and check in with Jarrell.

Thanks, Michael.

I'm here with Dr. Del Pozo, and we're digging deep on pollinators.

Remind me again what a pollinator is and what exactly they do.

Actually, that's a great topic and we're really, really interested in understanding pollinators.

Pollinators are all the animals, all these different organisms that go after and help us to get the flowers.

And yeah, you can see that, right?

And they creates a product.

Could be fruits, could be other different things.

So pollination give us that ecological service, which generates to us that benefit of having the beautiful and delicious fruits that we really enjoy.

How exactly are pollinators affected by pesticides?

We would like to make people aware that there is multiple avenues where pollinators can be influenced by pesticides, especially insecticides.

We gotta remember that insecticides are toxic against something, it will affect not only the pest that you want to control, but also the pollinators.

What are some things that we can do to encourage pollinators to come to our garden?

There is a lot of research, especially here in Virginia Tech, that we're trying to promote or at least understand what are the different plant species and the different flowers they can offer.

(calm music) It's the motto that we have here at the station.

Plant it, they will come.

Plant it, they will come.

Anything that you can do that you know is gonna flower.

Yeah.

Okay.

But then you can add it, I would like to have a native.

Or I would like to have a perennial.

Like those are the layers that you want to look into to have a garden that is more sustainable.

Can I do more diversity?

Can I put more flowers?

You know, black-eyed Susan, can I do cosmos?

Can I do some other things that I can promote from bringing more bumblebees and honeybees and sweat bees and all these different things.

So the idea is that you have diversity.

Remember at the end, the goal is to provide shelter, provide additional sources, because our landscape is so fragmented, right?

We live in an urban environment.

So the idea is if you put those plants, the pollinators are actively looking, they're flying around.

Honeybees are really smart in terms of where those hotspots are gonna be in terms of high reward, like really, really loads of flowers.

And then they're gonna look for that.

So if you start planting those things, you're gonna promote the shelter, the additional food.

And also if you don't spray anything, that's gonna be a safe space because they're not gonna be exposed to any toxic.

Alejandro, thank you again.

Thanks for having us here today.

Appreciate it.

Our pleasure.

(calm music continues) There are many ways to combat pests.

It's important to remember though, that while the insects, the fungi, the weeds and the rodents may seem like pests, they actually play an important role in their food web.

Focusing on safe, effective, and chemical-free methods and integrated pest management will help keep people safe and also protect the environment.

Don't forget to be kind to pollinators.

See you next time on "Spotlight Earth."

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