Integrated pest management is a system of preventative evaluations, decisions, and controls. Prevention starts with a careful identification of each pest and includes monitoring to estimate whether damage is unacceptable.

When preventative methods fail, IPM options range from physical removal or trapping to stronger chemical treatments. Monitoring provides information about each pest population such as their life cycle, damage potential, and natural enemies. Click here at https://armispestmanagement.com/ to learn more.

Steaming and Heating

Integrated pest management (IPM) is a systematic decision-making process that uses biological, cultural, physical, and chemical tools to identify and control pests in agricultural and natural resource settings. Its goal is to minimize economic, human health, and environmental risks.

IPM programs begin with prevention practices. These include sanitation, structural repairs, proper food storage and disposal, pest-proof traps, and other techniques that change the environment in which a pest lives. These methods deny the pest the food, water, or shelter it needs to survive and reproduce. They also deprive weeds of the sunlight they need to grow and prevent disease organisms from infecting leaves.

When pest populations are above action levels, the IPM team will decide on the right combination of pest control tactics. If chemicals are needed, the least toxic materials are chosen to minimize exposure to humans and non-target species. The decision to use chemicals should be based on accurate monitoring data and an evaluation system that includes the results of all inspections, trapping, and treatments.

Steaming and heating are two of the many non-chemical methods that can be used to reduce weed growth or control pathogens. They can be combined with other non-chemical methods, or used on their own to replace the need for conventional spraying or mowing. For example, steaming and mulching together can eliminate weeds without the need for herbicides. Steaming also sterilizes the soil, preventing diseases that can infect crops. It can be done in fields, greenhouses, and even indoor facilities. The technique can be applied using a regular commercial steam machine or a homemade device.

Soil Solarization

Soil solarization involves covering the soil surface with a transparent polyethylene film during the summer to trap and heat the sun’s rays. The high temperatures created by this process kill pathogens, fungi, insects, nematodes, and weed seeds. It can also reduce the amount of hand weeding needed in the garden or lawn.

While the thermal killing of pests is the main benefit of this technique, its effectiveness is attributed to a variety of biological, chemical, and physical processes that occur during and after treatment. For example, it is known to shift beneficial soil microbe populations and enhance the ability of plants to absorb nutrients.

In addition to reducing weeds and plant diseases, solarization improves soil quality by speeding up the breakdown of organic material. This releases nutrients like nitrogen, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and fulvic acid which are important for plant growth.

Although solarization is a viable option for many annual weeds, it is less effective on perennial weeds like purple and yellow nutsedge and field bindweed growing from rhizomes. It is also not very effective in areas with shallow soils and sandy or light clay soils that don’t hold water well.

Regardless of the soil type, however, the area to be solarized must be prepared carefully. Prior to treatment, the surface should be free of clods and other debris that can block sunlight from reaching the soil below. A rotary hoe or rototiller can be used to break up clumps of soil and loosen the surface for better coverage with the plastic. Once the plastic is in place, it should be kept in place until daily maximum temperatures of 110o to 125oF are reached, as measured by a soil thermometer or temperature probe.

Intercropping

The goal of intercropping is to use crop groups or species with complementary growth habits, nutrient requirements, and resistance to pests. In addition, mixing different types of plants in the field also promotes agrobiodiversity and can help curb plant diseases and pathogens.

Traditionally, pest management focused on using chemicals to kill or repel unwanted organisms. This was the mainstay of traditional agriculture, but it is now considered to be unsustainable in a world where environmental concerns are paramount. Chemicals harm people and natural habitats, cause disease in plants, and lead to the development of resistant organisms. Integrated pest management is a more effective approach that focuses on controlling unacceptable levels of pest damage and uses minimal chemicals.

One of the first steps in integrated pest management is to monitor pests. Identifying them accurately gives you the information you need to determine an action threshold and to use less aggressive control methods. It also makes sure that your pesticides are used properly to minimize risk to people and the environment.

Intercropping is an effective way to protect your cash crop against pests. It provides a physical barrier, depriving pests of their food sources, shelter, and water. It can even deter them by encouraging predatory organisms to eat the pests in the area. It can also help with erosion by holding the soil together.

For example, legumes grow well with most cereal crops and can prevent nematodes that destroy roots in the ground. Similarly, leafy vegetables can be planted with tomatoes to prevent fungal infections that can ruin the crop. Intercropping can also be used to control pests in the air. Planting a crop that matures at a different time than the main crop allows you to harvest it before the pests are done breeding.

No-Till Practices

The goal of no-till practices in integrated pest management is to use natural enemies and favorable weather conditions to control plant diseases and insect infestations. The cultivation technique reduces soil erosion, promotes soil aggregation, and improves crop health. The practice utilizes cover crops to enhance pest control.

Soil is a complex system of living and non-living elements that includes microbial biomass of fungi, bacteria, and fine roots that aggregate and store nutrients for plants. Conventional tillage breaks up these aggregates, reducing the amount of microbial biomass that protects from predatory insects and other harmful organisms.

A key component of IPM is identifying the level of pest damage homeowners can tolerate, which requires monitoring regularly and accurately determining the population levels of target pests. This information is used to decide whether a pest problem exists, or if the population is increasing to unacceptable levels.

Mechanical IPM options include removing or picking out pests by hand, burning, or using traps that attract and collect through air suction, electrical attraction, or sound. Many of these methods are also used in organic farming and gardening, as they are environmentally safe and economically feasible.

The simplest preventative IPM option is choosing disease-resistant or tolerant cultivars, which can greatly reduce the need for pesticides in the future. The agronomist who oversees the operation credits his no-till field rotations and moth-trapping monitoring with his ability to keep corn earworm losses to an acceptable minimum.

Preventative measures such as establishing a healthy seedbed, selecting certified seeds and visual inspection of planting materials can dramatically reduce the need for chemical pesticides. Organic farmers often use compost and manures to increase the microbial activity in their fields, which enhances the health of their soils. The use of cover crops, if done correctly, can prevent pest problems before they occur. In some cases, barriers such as fences or screens are necessary to protect the crop from invasive wildlife that might otherwise interfere with pest control measures.

Monitoring

In the field of integrated pest management, monitoring is essential to evaluate whether a control technique is working. Monitoring is done by observing the number of insects present or measuring the damage caused by the pests. This helps to determine the extent to which the pest population can be tolerated and at what level specific intervention is needed.

Monitoring a crop, garden or landscape also allows you to determine which techniques to use. By combining various prevention and control strategies, you can reduce the need to apply pesticides, which may pose health risks to people or harmful effects on other plants and wildlife.

For example, by reducing the amount of sunlight that weeds receive, mulching around plants, or mowing more often, you can deny weed seeds the light they need to germinate. By avoiding watering, you can deprive fungal pathogens of the moisture they need to infect leaves and cause disease.

By identifying pests, you can decide whether to employ biological control agents (predators and parasitoids) or cultural methods to suppress them. Biological control agents mimic the natural predator-prey dynamics of ecosystems and are an important component in integrated pest management. If introduced into a new environment, however, a biological agent may become a pest itself unless it is controlled.

Integrated pest management is the practical manipulation of plant pests using sound ecological principles to keep pest populations below a level causing economic injury. IPM is based on monitoring and the evaluation of control measures to achieve a balance between environmental and economic factors. It was developed in response to the steadily increasing use of pesticides, resulting in repeated pest control crises and the evolution of resistance to chemical agents. The law requires federal agencies to use IPM.