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How to Manage Pests
Interactive Tools and Models: Degree-Day Utility
What is DDU?
The Degree-Day Utility (DDU) is a very simple program developed by UC IPM for use on personal
computers. The program works under MS-DOS, on Windows computers.
- The program includes five methods for calculating degree-days.
- The calculations are based on a series of system prompts and user responses.
- Degree-days can be calculated from temperatures in a weather file or from
temperatures you enter from the computer's keyboard.
- Resulting daily or accumulated values can be displayed on the screen or stored in a
file.
- Reference degree-day tables can be created and printed.
- More than fifty phenology models are included in DDU, giving upper and lower
developmental thresholds, degree-day accumulations required for various stages of
development, location of the study, and references. Others are available online.
- Each phenology model can be displayed or printed.
What are degree-days?
A degree-day (oD) is a unit that combines time and temperature, used to estimate the
development of an organism from one point to another in its life cycle. Several methods
are available for calculating degree-days. The user's guide describes degree-day concepts and
methods in detail, and the same info is available online.
Degree-days are a valuable tool in crop management:
- to help growers and consultants to anticipate biological events resulting in better
pest control and crop management decisions
- to minimize conflicts between cultural operations such as irrigating and applying
a pesticide
Availability
The DDU software and documentation are now available free online. California
weather data formatted for DDU is also available on this site, under "Degree-days."
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