A do-it-yourself pest diagnostic and help website has recently been launched: the online Interactive Plant Manager. It focuses on the most common insects of New York and the Northeast United States and is a continuing effort that documents more than 175 insects and 180 plants. The website http://www.nysipm.cornell.edu/aes_ornamental.asp, provides easy-to-read fact sheets on range maps, photos of pests, the damage they cause, and life-cycle charts. It also includes least toxic control recommendations for the pests and provides quick links to pesticide guidelines and other resources.

This new tool, a project of the New York State Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program, based at Cornell would be very useful for landscapers, arborists, nursery growers, landscape architects and extension educators. Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann, IPM area specialist for Cornell Cooperative Extension on Long Island and the project manager for the new Website, hopes that land-care professionals and home gardeners will visit the website to get the right plant health information quickly.

Read the press release at: http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/May08/IPM.plant.website.sl.html for more information..