Integrated Control

Just as ground, air, and naval forces are integrated to achieve military objectives, the tactical weapons of pest control can also be integrated to achieve more effective management of pest populations. Development of resistance, effects on non-target organisms, and damage to the environment can all be minimized with selective and judicious use of multi-faceted control tactics. This approach, commonly known as integrated control, requires an understanding of ecological principles as well as a thorough knowledge of the pest's life history and population dynamics.
Integrated pest control is not a new concept. It was commonly practiced in the years before synthetic organic insecticides became widely available. But the old ways were largely abandoned after World War II because chemical weapons were so effective, convenient, and inexpensive. Once we recognized the dangers of over-dependence on a single control strategy, the principles of integrated pest control gained renewed acceptance.
Today, integrated pest control forms the foundation of Integrated Pest Management programs (IPM) that take a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary approach to solving pest problems. Insects, weeds, plant diseases, and even some vertebrate pests (e.g., birds and rodents) are included under the IPM umbrella. These programs emphasize management rather than eradication. They take a broad ecological approach to pest problems, focusing on all members of a pest complex in an effort to identify the optimum combination of control tactics that will reduce pest populations below economic thresholds and maintain these levels with the least possible impact on the rest of the environment. This approach, often called biorational pest control, relies heavily on cultural and biological tactics that are supplemented with carefully timed applications of highly selective chemical weapons.
The complexity of modern IPM programs will continue to increase as we add