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Session 02: Integrated Pest Management
Pesticide use is and will continue to be significant in food and fiber
production, forestry, turf and landscape maintenance, and public health.
Pest management has shifted from relying heavily on pesticides to using
an integrated approach based on pest assessment, decision making, and
evaluation.
Why Practice IPM?
Why have pest managers shifted to IPM when chemical pesticides so often
succeed at controlling pests? There are many reasons to broaden pest
management beyond the use of chemicals.
IPM helps to keep a balanced ecosystem.
Every ecosystem, made up of
living things and their non-living environment, has a balance; the actions of
one kind of organism in the ecosystem usually affect other species.
Introducing chemicals into the ecosystem can change this balance,
destroying certain species and allowing other species (sometimes pests
themselves) to dominate. Pesticides can kill beneficial insects that consume
pests, leaving few natural mechanisms of pest control.
Pesticides can be ineffective.
Chemical pesticides are not always
effective. Pests can become resistant to pesticides. In fact, some 600 cases of
pests developing pesticide resistance have been documented to date,
including many common weeds, insects, and disease-causing fungi.
Furthermore, pests may survive in situations where the chemical does not
reach pests, is washed off, is applied at an improper rate, or is applied at an
improper life stage of the pest.
IPM can save money.
IPM can avoid crop loss caused by pests and
prevent unnecessary pesticide expense. Applicators can save on pesticide
costs because the need for control, rather than routine application triggered
by the calendar, is the basis for applying pesticides.
IPM promotes a healthy environment.
We have much to learn about
the persistence of chemicals in the environment and their effect on living
creatures. Cases of contaminated groundwater appear each year, and
disposal of containers and unused pesticides still pose challenges for
applicators. Make sure that environmental impacts are considered in any
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pest management decisions. Using IPM strategies helps keep adverse
effects to a minimum
IPM maintains a good public image.
IPM is now demanded by many
sectors of our society. IPM has been implemented to grow our food, to
manage turf and ornamentals, to protect home and business structures, to
manage school grounds, and to protect humans, pets, and livestock health.
Components of an Integrated Pest Management Program
Planning is at the heart of an IPM program. Every crop has pests that need
to be considered. If you wait until problems arise during a growing season,
you’ll end up relying on pesticides more and more.
A good Integrated Pest Management program has three components:
1)
identifying and monitoring pest problems;
2)
selecting the best pest management tactics;
3)
record keeping and evaluating the program.
