Integrated Pest Management

Integrated Pest Management & Pesticide Safety

During the late 1970’s and early 1980’s the major companies in the field of pest management revised their control strategies to align themselves with concerns associated with the over-use and misuse of chemicals in the environment.

A procedure referred to as Integrated Pest Management (IPM) was adopted to overcome these valid concerns. Integrated Pest Management is a procedure where all possible methods of controlling a pest are considered in an endeavour to provide a total pest management program with minimum and judicious use of chemicals.

This procedure requires a thorough understanding of pest ecology, i.e. the conditions existing which encourage or enhance the abundance of the pest. The principal ecological factors include weather (temperature, moisture, light), food, shelter or habitat, and the presence of other organisms. Knowledge of these factors that attract or increase the potential of pest activity in an environment offers the opportunity to change these factors so that the pest ecology is no longer compatible with the changed conditions.

Integrated Pest Management can be divided into four categories:

CULTURAL CONTROL

An integral part of any pest management program is attention to the sanitation and hygiene as these aspects are extremely important when making an environment less attractive to the pest. Similar principles apply to the control of moisture within an environment, particularly in regard to structural pests, such as termites and borers, where adequate ventilation is a pre-requisite for reducing the potential risk. Reduction of available moisture is also a high priority in both rodent and cockroach control.

PHYSICAL CONTROL

This aspect of integrated pest management utilises physical methods of control which include trapping, proofing and other less complex physical approaches, such as fly screens and electrocutors. Permanent exclusion of birds can seldom be achieved by chemical baiting so alternative control procedures involving the proofing of entry points, roosting and nesting areas are employed.

BIOLOGICAL CONTROL

For many decades the biological control of pests has been utilised, possibly the most notable of these being the control of the prickly pear cactus by the introduction of a moth larva which feeds specifically on the cactus. Other more recent biological control procedures include the use of bacteria for the control of mosquito larvae and caterpillar larvae. An advantage of biological control is that in many instances it is specific to a particular pest and has no effect on non-target species.

CHEMICAL CONTROL

The chemicals used to control pests can be divided into two categories. The first category involves the use of synthetic but biologically related substances including hormones and pheromones. Products referred to as “insect growth regulators” can be successfully applied to prevent pests such as cockroaches and fleas from developing into mature adults, resulting in the halting of reproduction of the species.

General pesticides fall into the second category and include insecticides, rodent icides and herbicides. In recent times considerable emphasis is placed on researching chemicals which are of very low toxicity to mammals but are still extremely effective against nominated pests. The properties of these modern pesticides have been modified in an attempt to make them less persistent in order that they can be considered to be environmentally acceptable.

The primary objective of IPM is to minimise any harmful effect of pesticides in the environment, and to ensure that where necessary, chemical control occurs as an adjunct to the other control procedures.

Integrated Pest Management requires the following steps be implemented to ensure that a successful control program be achieved: