IPM: Integrated Pest Management

Say you have a pest problem. If you grow anything, even a few potted plants, you are sure to have pests… but is it a problem? How many bugs are too many?

What’s Your Action Threshold?

An “action threshold” refers to the point at which your pest population requires control. Usually the action threshold is marked by an “economic injury level”- the pest density at which your yield loss costs more than management costs.

The Benefits of a IPM Strategy

The trick to the most efficient pest management is something called IPM- Integrated Pest Management.

In IPM, multiple methods can be combined to create a strong management system that fits YOUR specific needs.

You can design an IPM approach based on your specific pest, your specific crops, and any other environmental factors that come into play.

The 4 “Rules” of a Successful IPM Strategy:

1) Only spray when you need to.

Know when it is necessary to spray and when it is inefficient. (This is determined with your action threshold and your personal knowledge of what’s going on with your crops. You need to keep an eye on them.) Only spray when necessary! This will keep you from losing money on unnecessary sprays.

2) Know your system.

I’m talking about the biology of your pests and their enemies and way they interact with each other. Knowing pertinent facts will equip you to employ multiple controls as once.

3) Let predators suppress pests when possible.

This is called biological control. If the natural enemy of a pest (say a predator that particularly like munching on that pest, or a parasitoid that lays its eggs inside that pest) is present, it is likely to stick around for a long time, and you can leave your pest control on nature’s autopilot.

4) Only combine different methods when they are compatible.

This means only if they do not change the effectiveness of other methods OR reduce the overall pest suppression.

Implementing the Right IPM Strategy

Devising a personal IPM approach is really a “mix and match” type of activity.

You first collect a lot of methods that you think you could use, and then you start puzzling them together until you have several that work well together. When you are finished you will have a system that suppresses and attacks pests on multiple fronts.

Having a variety of methods in place gives you a much more resilient control effort than if you use too few or too similar of methods.

First step: Collecting Methods.

So what methods are out there? Stay tuned for the following blog posts and videos to see various biological, chemical, cultural, and mechanical control methods. For more information, visit http://verticalfoodblog.com/ipm-integrated-pest-management/