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According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an IPM is a four-tiered system that allows each program to be designed to meet individual goals and eradication needs within the specific environment. For example, flower garden pests, bed bugs in hotels, and cockroaches in restaurant kitchens will require very different approaches to an IPM, while sharing similar principles to achieve effective pest management. The four tiers used in an IPM are:
1. Set action thresholds that signal the need for pest control and trigger action. In most cases, this threshold is defined as a human health or economic threat.
2. Monitor and identify pests so you know what they are, their characteristics, and whether they are harmful or perhaps even beneficial. This step requires routine inspections to both identify pests and locate their point of entry and/or habitat, food and water sources, and estimated population levels.
3. Preventing pests by eliminating conditions that attract them is the number one IPM activity. Indoors this can mean cleaning, reducing clutter, and sealing entry points. Outdoor activities could include removing trash and overgrown vegetation, eliminating standing water, and diverting stormwater away from buildings, and in the case of agriculture, using pest-resistant plant varieties and pest-free root stocks, aerating soil, and rotating crops.
4. Control is the last step and should be taken only after the first three steps indicate the need for pest control and prevention methods have not proven effective. Control methods should be evaluated for use by their effectiveness and risk so those that are most effective and have the lowest risk are at the top of the list.
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First is biologically-based pest control (aka biopesticides) using EPA-registered biopesticides derived from natural materials such as animals, plants, bacteria, and some minerals. By their nature biopesticides are inherently less toxic, allow targeted pest control (versus broad spectrum pesticides that can be unsafe for many other organisms such as birds, mammals, and other insects), they may be effective at lower quantities, and they decompose quickly. Biopesticides are divided into three categories:
Category 1—Microbial pesticides use a microorganism such as a bacterium, fungus, virus, or protozoan as the active ingredient.
Category 2—Plant-incorporated-protectants (PIPs) are genetic materials added to plants that enable the plant to produce its own pesticide.
Category 3—Biochemical pesticides contain naturally-occurring substances (such as insect sex pheromones that interfere with mating) to control pest populations.
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If biopesticides prove ineffective, the second choice is a chemically-based pest control, which the EPA defines as “reduced-risk chemically-based pesticides such as herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides.” These products are also reviewed and registered by the EPA under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and are usually composed of synthetic materials that kill or inactivate pests.
Although considered the second line of pest defense, chemically-based pest control products may be used simultaneously with biopesticides although they should be targeted at the specific pest. The EPA also has a Pesticide Special Review process that is used to address registered pesticides that are later found to have “unreasonable adverse effects on people or the environment.”