Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

Agriculture, horticulture, and lawn care professional are used to working with lots of pesticides. Now, however, many practice Integrated Pest Management. The technique offers them, as well as average homeowners, a conscientious means to eliminate pesticides and restore a natural balance to outdoor environments.

More Than Total Elimination

Integrated Pest Management is a common sense approach to managing insects that we humans tend to regard as pests. IPM is not about pest eradication, but it is, instead, pest management. It works, but only with a change in mindset and understanding tolerance for good and bad bugs.

Getting Started: IPM is Management Evaluation

First, monitor plants and watch what insects do. Read up on the role of insects! Not all are harmful. Many bugs are necessary to make plants bloom and grow. Using pesticides indiscriminately will kill insects that fertilize plants and eat bad bugs. Seeing a few bugs in your yard doesn’t mean chemical control is needed.

Next, set your tolerance thresholds. Can you tolerate a few bugs? Discovering that you have a couple of dozen aphids on your plants does not justify broad chemical control. Let ladybugs do the job for you. Do you have a few mealy bugs? Rubbing alcohol on a Q-tip will take care of those. The goal of IPM is to use these sorts of natural remedies and to eliminate the need for artificial pesticides.

IPMers are Vigilant

Manage your garden and lawn to prevent pests from becoming a threat. Think about prevention, not simply treatment. Research plant options. Look for native plants and plants that are less well-loved by hungry insects. Plant the right plant in the right place so that plants will be stronger and better able to fight infestations. Feed and water your plants. In short, do everything you can to maximize plant health by maintaining optimum growing conditions.

Gentle, Pre-IPM Help

If you have evaluated your plants and kept them healthy but still need to control insects, there are simple and safe ways to control insects that become pesky. For example, one teaspoon of mild dish detergent diluted in one gallon of water and sprayed on plants may be all that is needed.

True IPM: Battling Pests with Pests

Professional horticulturists have successfully used some insects to control others. For example, whiteflies on lantana, ageratum, and verbena can be managed with Encarsia formosa, tiny parasitic wasps known to feed on whiteflies. The wasps lay their eggs inside the immature whiteflies. As the eggs hatch, the developing larvae devour the young whiteflies. The immature whiteflies turn black when the Encarsia formosa wasp’s work is complete. Ladybug beetles control aphids, which are one of their favorite meals. Green lacewings love to eat aphids, mealy bugs, scale, spider mites and thrips.

While the beneficial bugs work immediately, they are not immediately 100 percent effective. Spraying a chemical insecticide, however, is out of the question since pesticide will harm the beneficial insects too. Practice tolerance and research other natural or light controls, such as detergent spray.

Within several years of IPM management, the insect balance will be reached. Flower beds that once attracted whiteflies and aphids, now patrolled by beneficial insects, will begin to exist naturally and harmoniously.

By rethinking the way you garden you’re sure to enjoy healthy and fun results.