Integrated Pest Management is a long-term process that uses practical techniques to manipulate environmental factors that promote pest growth. When necessary, it uses low-risk chemicals.
Monitoring is the first step, identifying existing pests and conducive conditions. Correct identification helps determine the best control method. Learn more by clicking here at https://pezzpestcontrol.com/.
Non-chemical controls include sanitation, exclusion, physical barriers, and trapping. Biological control introduces natural predators, parasites, or pathogens to reduce populations without harming the environment.
Preventive Measures
Preventive measures in an integrated pest management approach are designed to reduce the amount of time and effort it takes to control a problem. These include removing the conditions that allow pests to thrive, such as providing shelter or food and reducing their access to the plants they target. These techniques can also include mechanical controls, such as traps or steam sterilization of the soil. Physical barriers may also be used, such as netting or fences to keep birds or insects away from crops. Other preventive measures might be using mulches, changing crop rotation, or planting resistant varieties.
Another part of an integrated pest management approach involves understanding the life cycle of the targeted organism and its interaction with other factors to determine whether it needs to be controlled. Knowing the lifespan, migratory patterns, or feeding habits of the pest can help to determine when action is needed. Correctly identifying pests, monitoring their numbers, and determining their damage helps to avoid unnecessary use of pesticides.
In integrated pest management, chemical control is a last resort and only used when other methods have been exhausted. Typically, these chemicals are organic or natural substances that have been formulated to repel, injure, kill, or disrupt the life cycle of the targeted organism. The use of these substances is carefully regulated to minimize risks to human health, beneficial organisms, non-target species, and the environment.
Before any pesticide is used, the Integrated Pest Management approach tries to prevent or manage the problem through inspections and monitoring, biological control, altering habitats, changing cultural practices, and cultivating resistant organisms. If all these steps are not successful, then a pesticide is used only when its presence or impact is necessary, according to established guidelines, and with consideration for their effects on the ecosystem.
If you’re interested in a holistic approach to pest control, consider working with a pest professional who specializes in integrated pest management. You can find one through your local garden center, by checking with your state or provincial agriculture or horticulture department, or by searching online. Industry associations also often have directories of certified pest control professionals.
Biological Control
In integrated pest management, biological control (the conscious use of living beneficial organisms to manage pests) is a major component. Virtually all pests have natural enemies, including predators, parasitic insects, nematodes, and fungi that can kill or severely disrupt their populations. Ideally, the goal of biological control is to keep pest populations below economic thresholds so they do not cause appreciable damage.
A good starting point for understanding biological control is to know that only living organisms can mediate it. This is why it’s important to recognize and understand the life cycles of the organisms involved, and that they are always interacting with their host plants, not other types of organisms or even the environment.
Biological controls can take many forms: predators, pathogens, disease-causing microorganisms, or genetically modified organisms that mimic the behavior of a natural enemy. Generally, these organisms are specialized to target one or more species of pest, and they work with other natural enemies in concert to reduce pest populations. For example, the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) kills caterpillars and other Lepidopterans, while being safe for humans and pets. In other cases, a parasitoid will develop on or within a pest and eventually kill it when the pest population becomes too high.
Another common example of biological control is the release of predators or pathogens to kill an invasive species, such as purple loosestrife in the country. The idea is to bring the invasive plant’s population down to an economically acceptable level while maintaining biodiversity in a restored habitat.
In addition to preserving and enhancing existing biological control agents, the practice of IPM includes other ecologically sound practices such as soil testing, crop rotation, and adding organic matter to the soil. These help ensure that the soil can supply all of the nutrients needed for healthy plant growth and to resist insect infestations.
Integrated pest management is not limited to agricultural production; it’s also used in homes, parks, school gardens, and urban landscapes. IPM can also be applied to military landscapes, public health settings, and wildlife management areas.
Chemical Control
When modern pesticides first came on the market, they were very effective at controlling specific insect and plant diseases. Unfortunately, their overuse led to the development of pests that were resistant to them. This encouraged scientists to find other methods of reducing pest populations. These alternative methods are sometimes referred to as preventive or cultural control measures, and include crop rotation, planting insect-attracting plants, and the use of traps.
A plant’s physical environment also affects its susceptibility to infestation. Preventive steps can improve growing conditions by increasing a crop’s health and vigor. These steps may include amending the soil with organic matter, avoiding overwatering, and using no-till practices to reduce erosion and promote healthy, well-rooted plants.
Biological control refers to the use of living organisms that are natural enemies of a particular pest species. These organisms may be predators, parasitoids, or pathogens. Bacillus thuringiensis, for example, is an entomopathogenic bacterium that’s widely used in integrated pest management programs. Another method of biological control is host-plant resistance, which involves choosing cultivars that have inherited characteristics that make them less susceptible to pest attack.
Cultural controls aim to change a pest’s environment or behavior to make it unsuitable for reproduction. These techniques include crop rotation, the practice of planting crops in different fields or seasons to break insect pests’ life cycles, and the use of pheromone attractants to lure insects away from the crop.
Intercropping is another technique that uses a variety of crops in the same field to confuse and deter pests. For example, radish plants can act as traps for Japanese beetles while beans can be planted in their place to protect squash from root maggots. The choice of planting dates is important, too. Planting too early exposes a crop to the elements and stress while planting too late leaves the crops vulnerable to winter frost.
Pesticides are used only when other prevention or control methods fail to meet an action threshold. They are applied at the smallest amount possible to eliminate or deter the pest, and they’re selected about their impact on humans and non-target organisms.
Monitoring
Pests can harm crops from many different directions: rodents and nematodes spoil roots, weeds choke plants from the ground, birds eat fruits and seeds from above, pathogens attack from within, and insects chew leaves, stems, fruit, and other parts. To stop them, integrated pest management approaches use a variety of methods, including crop rotation, plant resistance, cultural manipulation, and chemicals. But the first step is monitoring to determine if pest populations are dangerously high and whether or when action must be taken.
The goal is to suppress harmful organisms below the level that causes economic injury. This requires careful consideration of all available pest control techniques, starting with safer ones and using more aggressive treatments only when prevention or other integrated management options fail to work.
Monitoring is done by checking fields, landscapes, forests, or buildings for pests and their damage. The results of this monitoring are used to decide if the pests need control and what method should be used. To monitor, you need to know what the pests are and how they reproduce, which is why good identification skills are necessary. Monitoring also includes knowing what environmental conditions cause them to grow and if they are likely to become a problem.
To prevent the development of resistant pests, the amount of pesticide used is carefully controlled. This is done by creating and utilizing monitoring and forecasting systems. These are based on biological and environmental information to predict when the pests will reach unacceptable levels. Ideally, these systems can alert you when a pest is present and what the problem is so that you can act quickly and efficiently.