Insect Pest Management

The Section Insect Pest Management (IPM) publishes original manuscripts on the biology, ethology, characterization, and control of insects that damage horticultural crops, including vegetables, fruit trees, vines, berries, ornamental shrubs and trees, flowers, and aromatic and medicinal plants.

Phytophagous insects severely damage production, decreasing the quality, longevity, and/or aesthetics of all types of horticultural plants. Damage can be direct and indirect because insects feed on plants but are also vectors or vehicles of several diseases. Many insects are capable of interacting with plants, also determining profound modifications of some organs to create an environment more suitable for their survival or their nutrition, and to do this, they have established a symbiosis with fungi and bacteria.

Humans use a whole series of techniques to keep the pests below the damage threshold which, however, is sometimes very low for some plants as even only aesthetic damage makes the product unmarketable.

The Section IPM welcomes submissions describing fundamental and applied research on all insect types and in all domains of insect pest management (e.g., morphological and molecular characterization, biology, ecology, plant–insect interactions, host resistance, damage, spread, and insect management). All manuscripts received will be judged based on scientific merit and quality of presentation. The Editorial Board will provide authors with a rapid and helpful peer review, and the open-access format of Horticulturae ensures rapid publication of accepted articles, excellent author services, broad readership, and high impact.

In particular, IPM welcomes contributions by early-career researchers and proposals for review topics. In addition, we invite senior scientists to initiate and serve as Guest Editors of new Special Issues on timely topics.