Pest management researchers at Cornell and the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station are trying to keep insects from bugging you at the dinner table.

Scientists from Cornell in Ithaca and Geneva, N.Y., are presenting information at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Third National Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Symposium, at the Washington Sheraton Hotel, Feb. 27 to March 1.

Integrated pest management is the multi-strategy approach agriculturists employ to reduce pesticide use, while obtaining high yields in the orchards and fields. Tactics include crop rotation, the use of natural/biological control methods, pest resistant plant varieties, pest prevention techniques, biopesticides, and pest attractants and repellants.

Whether you eat at a fast-food restaurant, or sit down to a full meal in your home, chances are that environmentally friendly IPM strategies were used to put food in front of you.

Here are some of the products Cornell researchers are studying:

Corn: Sweet corn in New York faces threats from many problems including pests like the European corn borer, the fall armyworm and the corn earworm. Over the past 13 years, Cornell researchers have developed methods for reducing commercial pesticide use by as much as 65 percent and saving the New York corn growers as much as $500,000 annually.

Onions: For more than two decades, researchers and onion growers in New York have been waging a winning battle with the onion maggot. The onion market value is worth between $50 and $75 million, and it costs the average grower between $2,500 and $3,000 an acre to plant the onions. By using proven IPM strategies, such as rotating onion crops with sudan grasses and planting genetically pest-resistant onion varieties, farmers have significantly reduced the need for pesticides.

Potatoes: This humble plant is susceptible to a variety of problems, including the Colorado potato beetle and late blight, which is the fungus responsible for the Irish potato famine. Researchers have found that crop rotation and trench traps reduced the incidence of the beetle. IPM strategists work very closely with extension agents and researchers to pinpoint outbreaks of potentially devastating late blight.

Strawberries: Researchers at Cornell's Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva found that bumblebees may be just as efficient at protecting strawberries from the diseases of gray mold (Botrytis cinera) as an application of fungicide. Domesticated bumblebees were placed in specially fabricated hives, where the bees were allowed to transport Trichoderma harzianum, a natural, non-toxic microbe to the strawberry plants. Rows of strawberries attended by the bees had as little of the gray mold as the rows treated directly by T. harzianum.

Grapes: The New York grape crop was worth more than $26 million in 1994 and must be kept weed-free. Researchers from the Experiment Station found that an oat-straw mulch reduced weeds, conserved ground moisture and built organic matter in the soil. They also learned that light cultivation reduces soil damage, caused by traditional deep cultivations. Cover crops with weed-inhibiting properties offer hope as a potential replacement for herbicides.

Drinking water: The drinking water for New York City comes from the Catskill Mountains, where agriculture is a way of life. Cornell researchers showed farmers and growers in the region that by changing some farming practices, safe drinking water would be assured for New York City. So-called "whole-farm" plans showed participants that they could prevent pathogens, crop nutrients, sediments, pesticides and other contaminants from getting into the city's drinking water supply.