Antigonon Leptopus (Corallita) on St Eustatius an Integrated Pest Management approach : Proposal for an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach

Corallita (Antigonon leptopus)) is a vine that is categorized as an invasive species of natural areas (Ernst and Ketner, 2007;; Raju et al., 2001). The vine originates from Mexico and is cultivated in many tropical areas for its flowers ( Burke and DiTommaso, 2011b). Corallita can become a serious pest, covering for example approximately 6% of the island Guam in 2011 (Reddy, 2011)) and 33% of St Eustatius in 2014 (Berkowitz,, 2014).   

The European Commission (2009) has defined the eight principles of Integrated Pest Management (IPM)) for the control of weeds,, diseases and pests . In this study we explore how these principles can be used to design an effective management system for Corallita on St Eustatius..