Integrated Pest Management

What is Integrated Pest Management (IPM)?

Integrated pest management, or IPM, is a method you’ll be able to use to solve pest problems whereas minimizing risks to people and therefore the setting. Integrated Pest Management can be used to manage all types of pests anywhere in urban, agricultural, and wildland or natural areas.

How does IPM work?

IPM is based on scientific research

WHAT IS A PEST?

Pests are organisms that damage or interfere with fascinating plants in our fields and orchards, landscapes, or wildlands, or damage homes or different structures. Pests conjointly include organisms that impact human or animal health. Pests could transmit disease or may be simply a nuisance. A pest will be a plant (weed), vertebrate (bird, rodent, or different mammal), invertebrate (insect, tick, mite, or snail), nematode, pathogen (bacteria, virus, or fungus) that causes disease, or alternative unwanted organism that may hurt water quality, animal life, or other elements of the ecosystem. 

Integrated Pest Management focuses on long-term prevention of pests or their damage by managing the ecosystem

With Integrated Pest Management, you are taking actions to keep pests from changing into a problem, like by growing a healthy crop that can stand up to pest attacks, using disease-resistant plants, or caulking cracks to stay insects or rodents from entering a building.
Rather than merely eliminating the pests you see right now, using IPM suggests that you may examine environmental factors that have an effect on the pest and its ability to thrive. Armed with this info, you’ll be able to create conditions that are unfavorable for the pest.

In Integrated Pest Management, monitoring and correct pest identification help you decide whether Integrated Pest Management is needed

Monitoring suggests that checking your field, landscape, forest, or building different websites - to identify that pests are gift, how many there are, or what harm they’ve caused. Correctly identifying the pest is key to knowing whether or not a pest is likely to become a downside and determining the best management strategy.
After monitoring and considering info about the pest, its biology, and environmental factors, you’ll decide whether the pest can be tolerated or whether or not it is a drawback that warrants control. If management is required, this information conjointly helps you select the foremost effective management methods and the most effective time to use them.

Integrated  Pest Management programs combine management approaches for greater effectiveness

The most effective, long-term approach to manage pests is by using a combination of strategies that work higher together than separately. Approaches for managing pests are typically grouped into the subsequent categories.

• Biological management: Biological management is the utilization of natural enemies-predators, parasites, pathogens, and competitors - to manage pests and their injury. Invertebrates, plant pathogens, nematodes, weeds, and vertebrates have several natural enemies.
• Cultural controls: Cultural controls are practices that reduce pest institution, reproduction, dispersal, and survival. For example, changing irrigation practices will reduce pest issues, since too much water will increase root disease and weeds.
• Mechanical and physical controls: Mechanical and physical controls kill a pest directly or create the setting unsuitable for it. Traps for rodents are examples of mechanical management. Physical controls include mulches for weed management, steam sterilization of the soil for disease management, or barriers like screens to keep birds or insects out.
• Chemical management: Chemical control is the utilization of pesticides. In IPM, pesticides are used only when required and in combination with different approaches for more effective, long-term management. Also, pesticides are selected and applied in a very means that minimizes their possible hurt to individuals and also the surroundings. With IPM you’ll use the foremost selective pesticide that will do the task and be the safest for other organisms and for air, soil, and water quality; use pesticides in bait stations instead of sprays; or spot-spray a few weeds instead of a whole area.

IPM programs

These IPM principles and practices are combined to create IPM programs. While every scenario is different, five major elements are common to all or any IPM programs:

1. Pest identification
2. Monitoring and assessing pest numbers and damage
3. Guidelines for when management action is required
4. Preventing pest issues
5. Using a mixture of biological, cultural, physical/mechanical and chemical management tools

This website will help you learn about IPM and how you’ll apply it to your pest issues. Your local Cooperative Extension office can additionally facilitate.