There are several types of pests that affect crops grown in Arizona. The Three types of pests most often cited as the source of most problems are insects, diseases and weeds. These are the same types of pests that are cited as causing the major agricultural pest problems across the U.S. and worldwide. In terms of pesticide use, worldwide herbicides accounted for 36 % of total usage, insecticides 25 %, and fungicides 10% and other 29 % (nematicides, rodenticides, fumigants, bird, fish and aquatic pests). Un the U.S., herbicides account for 44%, insecticides account for 10%, fungicides 6% and other, 40 % of pesticide use. In Arizona, however, insecticides account for58 %, herbicides17% and fungicides 12%. This is only an indirect measure of the relative importance of these three areas of pest management and may be influenced by the amount of pesticides used. For instance, it is common to spray for insects several times per season while it is uncommon to spray for weeds more than twice. Non the less, the following graphs illustrate that weeds are the predominant pest problem in agriculture across the U.S. and worldwide.

To contact Barry Tickes go to: btickes@ag.arizona.edu.

For questions or comments on any of the topics please contact Marco Pena at the Yuma Agricultural Center.
College of Agriculture, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.