Cultural practices and pest management must be balanced, says Michael Costello. Management practices for one kind of pest can affect nontargeted pests in the vineyard, warns Michael Costello, professor of entomology and acarology at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. For example, cultivating to manage weeds can raise dust that can attract mites. “I’ve never seen a mite that doesn’t like to hang out in dust,” Costello said at the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers annual meeting in Kennewick last winter. The agro-system includes all living and nonliving things, and they all interact in some way, Costello said. He […]