APES 5.14 Integrated Pest Management

Enduring Understanding:

  • Humans can mitigate their impact on land and water resources through sustainable use. 

Learning Objective:

  • Describe integrated pest management.
  • Describe the benefits and drawbacks of integrated pest management (IPM).

Essential Knowledge:

  • Integrated pest management (IPM) is a combination of methods used to effectively control pest species while minimizing the disruption to the environment.  These methods include biological, physical, and limited chemical methods such as biocontrol, intercropping, crop rotation, and natural predators of pests.
  • Integrated pest management (IPM) reduces the risk that pesticides pose to wildlife, water supplies, and human health.
  • Integrated pest management (IPM) minimizes disruptions to the environment and threats to human health but can be complex and expensive.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

  • IPM is a combination of methods used to reduce and eliminate pest species
  • It includes biological, physical, and chemical controls
  • It’s goal is to be as effective as possible while protecting biodiversity/non-target species and avoiding the pesticide treadmill

Biological Controls

  • Living controls
  • Introducing natural predators of the targeted pests
    • Parasitic wasps
    • Praying mantis
    • Lady bugs
    • Green lacewings
    • Specific bacteria and fungi
  • Allows plants to grow nearby that have pesticide-producing qualities
  • A farm dog or cat could control larger pests like rodents

Physical Controls

  • Literally putting up barriers to keep out pests
  • Could be a tarp on top of the soil
  • A fence/planter to keep out rodents
  • Traps, tilling, screens, week blocker

Chemical Controls

  • IPM does use chemical controls to an extent
  • The goal is to use as few of these as possible

Intercropping/Crop Rotation

  • Intercropping is growing two or more plants together in the same plot of land
  • Crop rotation is growing a different crop after growing the first kind
  • Both of these methods can dissuade pests because the crop they prey on is either not in abundance or not always present
    • This means they will not accumulate in numbers that warrant pesticide use
  • Note that IPM does not aim to exterminate all agricultural pests
    • These organisms are a part of the trophic structure of that ecosystem
    • Extermination isn’t sustainable or ideal in terms of biodiversity

Consequences

  • We know that the heavy use of chemical pesticides has many harmful effects on the environment
    • It can kill non-targeted wildlife
    • It can contaminate water supplies and harm marine ecosystems
    • It can even reach us and affect human health
  • One of the goals of IPM is to avoid these consequences

Drawbacks

  • IPM is complex and requires close attention every day
  • It is slow to act and may not be as effective as full pesticides
  • It can be very expensive

Benefits

  • Decreases the amount of chemical pesticides sprayed on crops
  • Economic savings by not buying pesticides
  • Sustainable
  • Targeted
  • Minimizes loss of pollinators
  • Minimizes health risk
  • Decreases pesticide resistance and treadmill