Practicing Integrated Pest Maintenance

As an organic gardener, I am always reading about and trying new ways to improve my garden without the use of chemicals. Garden pests such as aphids and Japanese Beetles, as well as wild animals, can wreak havoc on garden plants and sometimes be difficult to eradicate. By studying these and other pests and applying a little patience and time, a person can control the pests in their garden through a process known as Integrated Pest Management (IPM).

What is Integrated Pest Management?

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a process that allows a gardener to control or manage pests with the least possibility of chemical hazard to people or the environment. Although IPM can include synthetic chemicals, many organic gardeners choose to practice IPM without the use of pesticides. IPM involves knowing everything about the life cycle of pests, from their beginning as larvae, to what they eat, to how they mate, to how long they live, and when they die.

Four Steps of IPM: Action, Monitor and Identify, Prevention, and Control

Action limits are first set to determine when pest conditions need to addressed. One or two insects do not necessarily mean some form of intervention is needed, that is why knowing all you can about pests is so helpful to a gardener.

The action step leads into the second step monitor and identify. A gardener must monitor the pests and ask questions like; are there enough pests to take action, or are they doing too much damage, or are these beneficial pests, or is it so bad that I need to resort to the use of pesticides?

Although one or two pests may not be a threat, the possibility of them reproducing makes them a threat and that is where step three, prevention, comes in. Cultural methods organic gardeners can use as pest prevention are crop rotation, planting pest-resistant seeds, and companion planting. These methods prevent the use of chemicals thus protecting people and the environment.

When prevention does not work and pests are destroying plants (thus meeting the action limit), than control, step four, is needed. Organic gardeners can try less invasive controls such as pheromones to disrupt the mating of pests, or pest's traps such as those made for Japanese Beetles. Another method is weeding, using beneficial insects, or even human hair used to deter deer, rabbits and other animals.

Integrated Pest Management can also be applied to non-agricultural environments such as the home and workplace.

Source: Master Gardener Classes