Will a procrastinator succeed with biological pest control? Probably not. The reason is a simple one: Reaction time. Reaction, as defined, is a response to a stimulus. The stimulus in this case is the presence of pests. The reaction time being how long the person discovering said pests takes action. The response type isn’t that important, not at first. The choices are basically manual eradication (pinching, trapping, etc.), chemical (spray ‘em to death), or biocontrol (good bugs, yeah). What’s of the most importance is the reaction time. If one waits too long, the control choices become more limited and the pest population gets larger and more difficult to control. Waiting too long can lead to one having to use a fast-acting, omnipotent broad-spectrum insecticide as the only viable response. This may be all fine and good for the regular pesticide user, but if you are into biocontrol, waiting may be akin to shoot oneself in the foot. If you’re serious about biocontrol, waiting can kill your program.
There are all sorts of challenges to growing, whether you’re a small-plot home gardener or a large commercial grower. Pests are a major one. Having information about them and sitting on it for a few days or longer may spell disaster. If you don’t do your own pest scouting, it may be necessary to tell whoever does do it to report their findings immediately. Waiting just puts the squeeze on.
You may be reading this thinking it’s kind of silly to be stating such obvious and logical information. I would be inclined to agree, except for one thing: people do wait. Too busy, too tired, get to it tomorrow, and other fill-in-the-blank type responses. We hear them all the time. So bad it is that we sort of flinch when we hear it. Kinda like watching someone step out in traffic without looking. We shield our eyes, say a quick prayer, and hope the result isn’t disaster. So much of a problem this is that I’m actually writing about it. It saddens me to see good people set themselves up for bad times. Thus, today, I harp, I reiterate, I stress.
Two words: Reaction Time. Now three more words: Speed it up. Want to learn more? A little how-to, perhaps? Maybe this Scouting Info and Scouting Plan will help.
