Risk Evaluation of Main Pests and Integrated Management in Chinese Wolfberry, Lycium barbarum L

Chinese wolfberry Lycium barbarum L. (Solanales: Solanaceae), is an ancient herbal medicine and has been used for years in China. However, insect pests associated with this plant had not yet been well studied. The present study characterized the main pests associated with this plant. The method of risk assessment indices and the method of experience formulae were used to analyze the risk of pests under different management systems. The result demonstrates most frequent, incidental, and general insect pest in abandoned, organic and conventional fields. Analyses using CANCORR showed that the dynamics of pest populations were similar in all fields under different management system. Moreover, the matrices of correlation coefficients showed that dynamics of pests were significantly correlated. The correlation coefficients in dichotomous pattern viz. the abandoned field and the conventional field, the abandoned field and the organic field, the conventional field and the organic field were 0.8504, 0.8447, and 0.8564, respectively. Dynamics of the populations showed that the frequent disaster pests had two population establishment stages and one exponential growth stage in a year. The optimal controlling stages were from late part of the infancy period to early part of outbreak I period, middle of outbreak I period and from late part of dormancy period to early of outbreak II period. These were the key periods to control pest outbreak. The implications of these results are discussed.