Integrated Pest Management in Denver, CO

Integrated Pest Management in Depth

IPM originated in agriculture and is based on the concept that there are agriculture pest levels, which can be tolerated without suffering significant crop production losses, and the cost of pesticide use is not justified. However, if the pest population exceeds a predetermined threshold, insecticides are applied to lower the population below the economic threshold.

The agriculture concept of IPM poses some problems for the structural pest control industry. Economic thresholds within the structural pest management industry are not commonly used because the customers’ aesthetic (economic) threshold is zero and their expectations often mandate that the pest problem be solved immediately.

Occasionally, action thresholds have been used within the structural pest management, for instance, the Department of Defense in a recent publication suggests that an average sticky trap catch of less than one cockroach per trap, per night does not justify pesticide application. It further suggests that trap catches of one to three cockroaches per trap, per night may require a spot treatment. However, this is an exceptional case in structural pest control.

A few organizations characterize IPM as an approach to pest management that considers the use of pesticides as an independent entity and not as a component of the program. This flies in the face of what IPM is and what its goal should be, the decision making process and planning program designed to identify specific pests and infestation sites, suppress the infestation with short-term solutions, and reduce the causes of infestation with long-term strategies.