Integrated Pest Management – IPM

What is Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

Climate change, food insecurity, and energy demand are major concerns for modern agriculture where their impact is increasing rapidly with a rapidly growing human population which has resulted in a demand for increased food production. As land resources are limited, efforts have been made to increase productivity by combatting losses inflicted by insects, weeds, and plant pathogens through pesticide intervention. At the same time, pesticides have proved to be dangerous due partly to their indiscriminate and excessive use, contaminating food and the environment which may result in pest resistance, pest resurgence, and pest outbreaks. Consequently, the need arose for ecofriendly, strategies to produce food safe from the negative impacts of pesticide residues where integrated pest management (IPM) were introduced to the world. Thus, IPM has been accepted as the main strategy for managing pests throughout the world today which has been four decades since IPM programs were first implemented in the developed and developing countries.

As to the general understanding, pests are organisms that damage or interfere with desirable plants in the fields and orchards, landscapes, or natural reserves, or damage industries, homes or other structures. Pests also include organisms that impact human or animal health whereas pests may transmit disease or may be just a nuisance. A pest can be a plant (weed), vertebrate (bird, rodent, or other mammal), invertebrate (insect, mite, or snail), nematode, pathogen (bacteria, virus, or fungus) that causes disease, or other unwanted organism that may harm water quality, animal life, or other parts of the ecosystem. Thus, controlling these different kind of pests require multiple approaches and different methods to manage them whereas IPM has gained the advantage of being the best practiced method due to its ecofriendly nature as well as reduced costs with lowered risks for consumers.  

Integrated Pest Management is an effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that relies on a combination of common-sense practices. IPM programs use current, comprehensive information on the life cycles of pests and their interaction with the environment. This information, in combination with available pest control methods, is used to manage pest damage by the most economical means, and with the least possible hazard to people, property, and the environment. The IPM approach can be applied to both agricultural and non-agricultural settings, such as the home, garden, and workplace. IPM takes advantage of all appropriate pest management options including, but not limited to, the judicious use of pesticides. In contrast, organic food production applies many of the same concepts as IPM but limits the use of pesticides to those that are produced from natural sources, as opposed to synthetic chemicals. Thus, IPM principle does not preclude chemical pesticide use, but rather uses it as one of the tools in the management package, to be used prudently whilst being integrated with other tools. Hence, the concept of the IPM of insects contains three basic elements; (1) maintaining insect populations below levels that cause economic damage; (2) the use of multiple tactics to manage insect populations; and (3) the conservation of environmental quality.

Design of an IPM Program

IPM is an ecosystem-based strategy that focuses on long-term prevention of pests or their damage through a combination of techniques such as biological control, habitat manipulation, modification of cultural practices, and use of resistant varieties. Pesticides are used only after monitoring indicates that, they are needed according to established guidelines, whereas treatments are made with the goal of removing only the target organism. Pest control materials are selected and applied in a manner that minimizes risks to human health, non-target beneficial organisms, and the environment. Thus, IPM is a term that is used loosely with many different definitions and methods of implementation, where it can mean virtually anything the practitioner wants it to mean. However, when preparing IPM programs, IPM principles and practices are combined to create IPM programs since each situation is different.

There are six major components common to all IPM programs:

1. Pest identification;

2. Monitoring and assessment of pest numbers and their damage;

3. Guidelines for when management action is required;  

4. Prevention of pest problems;

5. Use of a combination of biological, cultural, physical/mechanical and chemical management tools;

6. Assessment of the effect of pest management after actions are taken. 

Nonetheless, IPM is not a single pest control method but, rather, a series of pest management evaluations, decisions and controls. Once you decide on your integrated pest management program, following key practices are mandatory to be included in the written programs while implementing it to align with the good management practices;

Monitoring – This includes regular site inspections and trapping to determine the types and infestation levels of pests at each site.

Record-Keeping – A record-keeping system is essential to establish trends and patterns in pest outbreaks. Information recorded at every inspection or treatment should include pest identification, population size, distribution, recommendations for future prevention, and complete information on the treatment action.

Action Levels – Pests are virtually never eradicated, where an action level is the population size which requires remedial action for human health, economic, or aesthetic reasons.

Prevention – Preventive measures must be incorporated into the existing structures as well as when design new structures. Prevention should be the primary means of pest control in an IPM program.

Tactics Criteria – Under IPM, chemicals should be used only as a last resort only, but when used, the least-toxic materials should be chosen, and applied to minimize exposure to humans and all non-target organisms.

Evaluation – A regular evaluation program is essential to determine the success of the pest management strategies.

Once the written program is ready for filed implementation, users are aware of the potential for pest infestations, where they need to follow a four-tiered approach. The four steps include:

Set Action Thresholds

Before taking any pest control action, IPM first sets an action threshold, a point at which pest populations or environmental conditions indicate that pest control action must be taken. Sighting a single pest doesn’t always mean control is required, because the level at which pests will either become an economic threat is critical to guide future pest control decisions.

Monitor and Identify Pests

Not all insects, weeds, and other living organisms require control, because many organisms are innocuous, and some are even beneficial, whereas IPM programs work to monitor for pests and identify them accurately, so that appropriate control decisions can be made in conjunction with action thresholds. This monitoring and identification removes the possibility that pesticides will be used when they are not really required or that the wrong kind of pesticide will be used.

Prevention

As a first line of pest control, IPM programs work to manage the crop, lawn, or indoor space to prevent pests from becoming a threat. In an agricultural crop, this may mean using cultural methods, such as rotating between different crops, selecting pest-resistant varieties, and planting pest free rootstock. These control methods can be very effective and cost efficient and present little to no risk to people or the environment.

Control

Once monitoring, identification, and action thresholds indicate that pest control is required, and preventive methods are no longer effective or available, IPM programs then evaluate the proper control method both for effectiveness and risk. Effective, less risky pest controls are chosen first, including highly targeted chemicals, such as pheromones to disrupt pest mating, or mechanical control, such as trapping or weeding. If further monitoring, identifications and action thresholds indicate that less risky controls are not working, then additional pest control methods would be employed, such as targeted spraying of pesticides. Broadcast spraying of non-specific pesticides is a last resort.

Implementation of IPM

Thus, IPM focuses on long-term prevention of pests or their damage by managing the ecosystem while taking actions to keep pests from becoming a problem, such as by growing a healthy crop that can withstand pest attacks, using disease-resistant plants, or caulking cracks to keep insects or rodents from entering a building. Rather than simply eliminating the pests been observed, use of IPM means the look at environmental factors that can affect the pest and its ability to thrive. Once the user is armed with such information that can be used to create conditions that are unfavorable for the pest. In IPM, monitoring and correct pest identification help you decide whether management is required while monitoring means checking your field, landscape, lawn, or building or other sites next to your field to identify which pests are present, how many there are, or what damage they've caused. Correctly identifying the pest is the key to knowing whether a pest is likely to become a problem and determining the best management strategy. After monitoring and considering information about the pest, its biology, life cycle and environmental factors, user can decide whether the pest can be tolerated or whether it is a problem that warrants control. If control is required, the information collected also helps to select the most effective management methods and the best time to use them. IPM programs combine management approaches for greater effectiveness, whereas most effective, long-term way to manage pests is by using a combination of methods that work as a combination of control methods rather than an individual program. Approaches for managing pests are often grouped in the following categories.

Biological Controls

Biological control is the use of natural enemies such as predators, parasites, pathogens, and competitors to control pests and their damage. Invertebrates, plant pathogens, nematodes, weeds, and vertebrates have many natural enemies.

Cultural Controls

Cultural controls are practices that reduce pest establishment, reproduction, dispersal, and survival. For example, changing irrigation practices can reduce pest problems, since too much water can increase root disease and weed in a crop filed.

Mechanical and Physical Controls

Mechanical and physical controls kill a pest directly, block pests out, or make the environment unsuitable for it. Traps for rodents are such examples of mechanical control. Physical controls include mulches for weed management, steam sterilization of the soil for disease management, or barriers such as screens to keep birds or insects out.

Chemical Control

Chemical control is the use of pesticides. In IPM, pesticides are used only when needed and in combination with other approaches for more effective, long-term control. Pesticides are selected and applied in a way that minimizes their possible harm to people, non-target organisms, and the environment. The IPM promote the use of most selective pesticide that will do the job and be the safest for other organisms and for air, soil, and water quality while using best applicable methods such as use of pesticides in bait stations rather than sprays; or spot-spray a few weeds instead of an entire area which is one of the major practices used in precision agriculture today.

In most cases, food grown using IPM practices is not identified in the marketplace like organic foods, because there are no national certifications for growers using IPM, such as the United States Department of Agriculture/EU labeling for organic foods. Since IPM is a complex pest control process, not merely a series of practices, it is impossible to use one IPM definition for all foods and all areas of a country. In certain countries like US, many individual commodity growers, for crops such as potatoes and strawberries, are working to define what IPM means for their crop and region, and IPM-labeled foods are available in limited areas. If such definitions are practical, growers may be able begin to market more of their products as IPM-Grown, giving consumers another choice in their food purchases. But these goals are not easy and practical in to a large extent as to the explained reasons.