Integrated Pest Management

Integrated Pest Management: "What is Integrated Pest Management (IPM)?

Integrated pest management, or IPM, is an approach to pest control that utilizes regular monitoring to determine if and when treatments are needed and employs physical, mechanical, cultural, biological, and educational tactics to keep pest numbers low enough to prevent unacceptable damage or annoyance. Order the BIRC Publication What is IPM? for a more detailed discussion. See the Publications List.

In IPM programs, treatments are not made according to a predetermined schedule. Instead, they are made only when and where monitoring has indicated that the pest will cause unacceptable economic, medical, or aesthetic damage. Treatments are chosen and timed to be most effective and least-hazardous to non-target organisms and the general environment. "