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Daniel A. Herms, Ohio State University/ Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center/Entomology |
The phenological sequence from 1997-2001 is presented in Table 1. For clarity, only common names are listed. To achieve standardization, for common names of plants follow Dirr (1998), and for insect and mite names use the official common names as approved by the Entomological Society of America.
In general, plant and insect phenology was delayed during the cool spring of 1997 and accelerated in the warm spring of 1998, relative to the more "average" years of 1999-2001. Despite these differences in weather, the order in which the phenological events occurred remained quite consistent, with only minor deviations from year-to-year.
This consistency in the pattern demonstrates that even one year of phenological data can be useful for timing pest management decisions. For example, a pest control operator could note what plants happened to be in bloom when a pesticide application was made. If follow-up monitoring showed the application to be effective, then the timing of the spray could be accurately duplicated the following season. If the application was found to be too early or too late, then the timing of the application in future years could be delayed or accelerated relative to the phenological sequence. To facilitate phenological monitoring by landscape and nursery managers, a column for recording data has been included in Table 1 so that the table can be copied for use as a data sheet.