The Programmable Calculator as a Pest Management Tool

Grower-oriented, pest management information may be divided into 2 general classes: (1) regional advisory recommendations, formulation of which requires specialized knowledge or facilities located only at a few central sites; and (2) farm-specific recommendations, which may modify the regional advisories. For example, Poston et al. (1978) developed a model for optimizing insecticide-application dates for the southwestern corn borer, Diatrea grandiosella Dyar on a country-by-country (i.e., regional) basis. It is probable, however, that all fields in a country might not possess economic infestations. Thus, the final decision to spray on the optimal date must be made at the individual farm level. Achieving this degree of resolution exceeds the capabilities of purely centralized pest-management systems (Croft et al. 1978).