Decision support for vegetable growers in the UK – the HDC Pest Bulletin

Abstract: For the last 6 years, UK vegetable growers have received information about vegetablepest activity through a web site funded by the Horticultural Development Company (the grower–funded organisation that funds horticultural research and development in the UK). The service iscalled the HDC Pest Bulletin and is hosted by the web site at Warwick HRI. The Pest Bulletinprovides forecasts for several pests of vegetable crops, summaries of aphid captures by thenetwork of suction traps run by the Rothamsted Insect Survey and other information on pestnumbers and activity as it becomes available. It also provides a certain amount of ‘historical’ data– which can provide useful background information. The Pest Bulletin web pages received31,000 ‘hits’ between 1 March and 31 October 2009. The peak month was June (nearly 4,800hits) and the peak day was 24 April (263 hits). The four most popular pages were, in decreasingorder of popularity: the HDC Pest Bulletin home page, Psila rosae, Delia radicum and Agrotissegetum.