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| (From Google) |
Integrated pest management is the combination of appropriate pest control tactics into a single plan to reduce pests and their damage to an acceptable level. Using many different tactics to control a pest problem tends to cause the least disruption to the living organisms and nonliving surroundings at the treatment site. Relying only on pesticides can cause pests to develop resistance to pesticides, cause outbreaks of other pests, and can harm surfaces or non-target organisms. With some pests, using pesticides alone will not achieve adequate control.
Threshold Levels
Thresholds are the levels of pest populations at which you should take pest control action if you want to prevent the pests in an area from causing unacceptable injury or harm. Thresholds may be based on esthetic, health, or economic considerations. These levels, which are known as "action thresholds," have been determined for many pests.
A threshold often is set at the level where the economic losses caused by pest damage, if the pest population continued to grow, would be greater than the cost of controlling the pests. These types of action thresholds are called "economic thresholds." For example, when the number of insects on a particular crop exceeds a given quantity, an insecticide application to prevent economic damage could be justified.
In some pest control situations, the threshold level is zero: even a single pest in such a situation is unreasonably harmful. For example, the presence of any rodents in food processing facilities forces action. In homes, people generally take action to control some pests, such as rodents or roaches, even if only one or a few have been seen.
Pest Control Goals
Whenever you try to control a pest, you will want to achieve one of these three goals, or some combination of them:
prevention -- keeping a pest from becoming a problem,
suppression -- reducing pest numbers or damage to an acceptable level, and
eradication -- destroying an entire pest population.
Prevention may be a goal when the pest's presence or abundance can be predicted in advance. Continuous pests, by definition, are usually very predictable. Sporadic and potential pests may be predictable if you know the circumstances or conditions that favor their presence as pests. For example, some plant diseases occur only under certain environmental conditions. If such conditions are present, you can take steps to prevent the plant disease organisms from harming the desirable plants.
Suppression is a common goal in many pest situations. The intent is to reduce the number of pests to a level where the harm they cause is acceptable. Once a pest's presence is detected and control is deemed necessary, suppression and prevention often are joint goals. The right combination of control measures can often suppress the pests already present and prevent them from building up again to a level where they are causing unacceptable harm.
Eradication is a rare goal in outdoor pest situations because it is difficult to achieve. Usually the goal is prevention and/or suppression. Eradication is occasionally attempted when a foreign pest has been accidentally introduced, but is not yet established in an area. Such eradication strategies often are supported by the government. The Mediterranean fruit fly, gypsy moth, and fire ant control programs are examples.
Eradication is a more common goal indoors. Enclosed environments usually are smaller, less complex, and more easily controlled than outdoor areas. In many enclosed areas, such as dwellings, schools, office buildings, and health care, food processing, and food preparation facilities, certain pests cannot or will not be tolerated.
