A damaged leaf is not a pest diagnosis

A grower finds discolored leaves and some small insects on several plants. The soil has remained wet after a drainage change, and no one has checked the insect life stage or whether it feeds on the affected crop. Another employee suggests applying the same product used last season because the label brand is familiar. Monitoring records are incomplete, beneficial organisms have not been assessed and a neighboring sensitive planting could be exposed. The exercise asks how to define the problem and select appropriate evidence before deciding among management tactics. It supplies no crop-specific threshold, product recommendation, application rate or permission to introduce a biological agent into the setting.