Introduction
Integrated pest management (IPM) is an effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management. It uses a plant positive approach instead of a pest negative one and natural forms of pest control, such as lady bugs. It is important to understand that a healthy garden will have all types of insects present and until they start to affect your crops in a serious way they are not a problem. The idea behind IPM is that pest infestations are not the problem but instead an indication of a problem within the growing environment. When there is a pest problem here are some questions to ask yourself.
- Is the quantity of insects acceptable? For instance, if they are seriously affecting only five percent of your crops, then the level of infestation is probably acceptable.
- How happy are you plants? Happy plants don’t have pests problems.
- Are their basic needs being met, e.g. light, temperature, moisture, and nutrients?
- Did they get stressed out when they were little? If a seedling gets stressed out, the stress may last its whole life, e.g. too much or too little water, transplant shock, or stunting them can all have lasting effects.
Preventative steps to take against pest problems
Make a happy plant through proper planting techniques.
- Use seeds that grow well in your area.
- Use plant varieties that are naturally pest resistant, hardy and disease resistant. Avoid hybrids. Saving your own seeds are best for this.
- Implement companion planting.
- Encourage nature’s own insect control.
- Toads, snakes, spiders, and birds all eat bugs so encourage them to be around by having animal hiding areas, such as bushes, trees, and running water.
Three main areas of IPM
- Physical controls.
- Biological controls.
- Chemical controls.
Physical controls
Physical controls include: hand removal of insects, traps, barriers such as tangle foot, deer fencing, and row cover. The most important part of IPM is crop rotation. Crop rotation means allowing a three to five year time period between planting a member of the same plant family in the same plot of land. An exception to this three to five year rule is in conditions involving white rot that affects Alliums and will stay in the soil for up to ten years. Because white rot is so hard to get rid of, it is important to get high quality seeds from a reliable source by either purchasing them or using your own if you are sure your soil is not already contaminated. Rotating your crops will control a lot of pests, disease, and fungus because they are usually plant family specific.
Biological controls
Biological controls are using other creatures to eat the undesirable insects. Following are a few examples of biological controls:
- Having a diversity in the garden to attract natural predators of insects.
- Insectary crops which attract beneficial insects. A good family for this is fabaceae which are legumes.
- Chickens eat all bugs but also your plants so watch them carefully.
- Ducks eat snails and slugs as well as plants.
- Introducing beneficial insects but BE careful with this as they can escape from your garden and you could introduce bad species. Find out before ordering beneficial insects that the species is alright for your area. Most nurseries should be able to help you with this or contact your local Agriculture department. Some beneficial insects include: lady bugs, Praying mantis, Trichogramma wasps, Tachinid flies, and Syrphid flies.
Chemical controls
Chemical controls are considered a last resort in IPM but sometimes they are needed. Following are some common chemical controls; many can be made at home with a good recipe.
- For chewing, biting insects, use ingredients that are aromatic and distasteful such as garlic, onion, and pepper. Pepper sprays are available for purchase.
- For sucking bugs use soap solutions (not detergents) and clear oily solutions that coat their bodies and stop respiration. Safer soap is a common product that is found in every nursery.
- Pyrithruin is a bug bomb which was made from a type of Chrysanthemum flower but is now made synthetically. It is used to kill a wide variety of pests.
- Neem oil is a fungicide as well as insecticide.
Some problems with chemical controls are that bugs build immunity to them and they can stop working. They are also not species specific so beneficial as well as harmful bugs are killed.