Integrated Pest Management or IPM Ecology and Out Door Living

This is the EPA definition of IPM: "In technical terms, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is the coordinated use of pest and environmental information with available pest control methods to forestall unacceptable levels of pest damage by the most economical means and with the least possible hazard to people, property, and the environment".

I don't think it goes quite far enough myself. For it to realy be integrated, and comprehensive, it needs to do more than just integrate the means of treating the symptoms, it needs to find cures, and work on prevention as well. The pests we have in our out door living spaces, are a result of other decisions made earlier.

The truth is, WE CREATE MOST OF OUR PROBLEMS! We construct a new patio, which causes some water to puddle up when it rains or when the irrigation turns on. Bam- mosquito breeding area!

At our next cookout, we slap at them so furiously, that all the neighbors think we are waving them over for burgers. We try using repellents, we buy foggers and citronella tiki torches, call the exterminator, build purple martin houses, and still they come!

We are treating symptoms. The problem is the standing water. Get free of it, and the blood sucking little disease carriers go away, along with the cost for the extermination, the foggers, the repellents, the torches, and the time and expense of extra burgers for the neighbors.

One of my favorite sayings is "It is hard to maintain out, what is engineered in", we want to make an environment that discourages pests, not one that causes them to multiply. Sure we only have the problem after a period of wet warm weather, but the only time the roof leaks is when it rains!

The purple martin houses are a good idea, those little guys consume a ton of "skeeters", and they are a good tool in our pest control arsenal. I would call this, a biological control. That is, the introduction of a less problematic species, to destroy the other.

Some situations may call for re -engineering, (providing drainage in this case) some may call for biological controls, some may require the judicious use of chemical controls, most require some of all the above. This is a PART of, what we call Integrated Pest Management or IPM.

Sometimes things are engineered so poorly that you have no choice but to call someone like me!