Increasing the sustainability of tomato fruitworm, Helicoverpa zea, management in Arkansas tomato production

The tomato fruitworm (TFW), Helicoverpa zea, is a major insect pest of tomato production in South Arkansas. Current pest management practices maximize time efficiency and ease of production by relying on scheduled spray programs rather than utilizing established sustainable tactics such as scouting and economic thresholds. Additionally, tomato producers rely almost exclusively on broad spectrum pyrethroids for control, which is a class of insecticide in which TFW is known to be resistant. Established TFW thresholds don’t account for resistance and were created before targeted and effective insecticides such as the diamides were on the market. These factors suggest that integration of scouting-based thresholds and targeted insecticides will help to increase the sustainability of Arkansas tomato production. The objective of this trial was to compare the effectiveness of weekly pyrethroid spray schedules vs. targeted sprays based on scouting, determine the usefulness of old TFW thresholds utilizing pyrethroids or diamide insecticides, and utilize on-farm demonstrations and agent trainings to increase the adoption of sustainable pest management techniques.