WorksheetsVegetable Industry #4B: IPM (Integrated Pest Management)
Total questions: 18
Worksheet time: 9mins
A solid Integrated Pest Management program that wards off pests, but has minimal impact on the environment and beneficial garden creatures such as birds, bees and butterflies you want to stick around.
*Relies on multiple control prctices.
*Establishes the amount of damage that can be tolerated before control actions are taken.
There are four main categories of pest controls that form IPM's foundation. The four work hand in hand to provide targeted, effective, long-term pest management, and each category plays a special role. Which category do you think should be your last resort?
These types of IPM pest control start with the decisions you make when choosing and caring for plants. Prevention is your first line of defense; healthy, nurtured plants resist pests and diseases better than weak, unhealthy plants:
1. Choose plants suited to your area (dry vs wet...).
2. Select disease- and pest-resistant plant varieties.
3. Plant at appropriate times (cold/heat tolerance...).
4. Choose proper sites (sun vs. shade...).
5. Maintain lawn and garden tools.
6. Avoid overhead watering (leaf disease, fungi...)
7. Water in early morning to prevent fungal growth.
8. Crop rotation and inter-cropping.
9. Test your soil!
When using these types of IPM pest control, you, with your hands, feet, equipment you install, etc... go directly after pests to capture them, kill them, and/or prevent them from reaching their destinations (your plants!):
1. Use mulch in garden areas.
2. Hoe or pull weeds before they establish roots.
3. Place collars in the soil around vegetable stems.
4. Stretch netting over your favorite berry bushes.
5. Stop destructive rodents with traps and fencing.
6. Hand-pick pests off plants.
7. Planting trap crops to lure pests, then remove from trap.
8. Solarization (cover with plastic) of soil to heat it and kill pests.
All pests, from weeds and insects to diseases, have natural enemies. IPM conserves, supports and encourages these foes. Knowing the difference between good and bad bugs is essential for IPM.
1. Predator insects.
2. Parasitic insects.
3. Biological pathogens: Bacillus thuringiensis, also known as Bt, is a soil-borne bacterium that fights mosquitoes and insects in the larval, caterpillar stage. This and other pathogens are effective natural pesticides for very specific pests.
Used only when other IPM controls fall short, an effective IPM program includes pesticides for prevention and active treatment. Invasive Japanese beetles, for example, devastate gardens and skeletonize leaves and blossoms. In Japan, the beetle's natural enemies control it, but its native predators don't exist in the United States. Pesticides help fill that gap:
1. Natural or non-synthetic pesticides (organic pesticides).
2. Traditional or synthetic pesticides.
3. Preventive pesticides.
