#5 Practice Integrated Pest Management

Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, may sound intimidating or complicated, but it is essentially taking a little extra time to observe and identify the pests or diseases in your garden, then choosing the least toxic method(s) among the available treatment options to remedy the problem. Using the least toxic method ensures that the beneficial organisms that help control other potential pests in your garden are left behind to do their beneficial work. Using healthy garden habits will help control and prevent unwanted pests and invite beneficial organisms to your garden. Read on to learn about different ways you can create a more healthy and balanced environment in your garden.

Pest ID


Why?

The most important step a gardener can take is to identify garden pests. A pest refers not only to an insect or animal, but also to a disease or weed. Pests can invade our gardens and our homes. Identifying the correct pest will steer you towards treatment options that are designed to target the identified pest without harming the beneficial organisms that may be present in your garden.

How?

Take a few moments to be a detective: observe any damage to your plants, look for insects or insect activity, and take note of current maintenance and watering habits. Remember that many of the insects in our gardens may be beneficial predators that help control unwanted pests. For this reason, it is especially important to identify the pest or disease before taking action. With the help of IPM resources,  you may find it relatively simple to find the cause of your plant’s symptoms. Try to make a regular habit of taking a short walk through your garden to observe changes in plant growth and the activity of natural visitors in your garden.

Cultural Control

Why?

Once the pest has been identified, you will find different options to control the problem. The first to consider is cultural control. Cultural control refers to your gardening habits and practices.

How?

• Start with good sanitation practices. Remove old fruit, flowers, weeds, or volunteer plants. Prune off diseased or damaged leaves or limbs. Reducing the environment in which many pests prefer to live is a big step in reducing the potential for pests in your garden. Do not compost diseased or infested plant material as there is a chance that all diseases and pests may not be destroyed during the composting process and may re-infect your garden when using the finished compost as a soil amendment.
• Practice crop rotation. When planting annual vegetables and ornamentals, do not plant the same food crop or plant in the same location every year. Rotating annual plants and vegetables reduces or prevents the incidence of some diseases and root infestations.
• Know the water requirements of your plants and adjust your irrigation system to support the optimum health of your plants. If plants are over or under-watered based on their ideal water requirements, the plant may be stressed and more susceptible to infestation or disease. Additionally, using the incorrect application of water (e.g. overhead spray) on some plants may make them more susceptible to pests and disease. If you are uncertain about the needs of your plants, there are many resources that can help you learn more.
• Plant pest and disease resistant varieties. There are often varieties of annuals, perennials, and vegetables that are bred to resist common pests and diseases. Native plants and trees also tend to have fewer pest problems.

Physical Control

Before you choose to use a chemical solution to your pest and weed problem, consider the variety of physical methods to control weeds, diseases, or infestations.

Why?

When you control a pest using physical methods, you have a higher chance of eliminating only the target pest rather than unnecessarily affecting the beneficial plants and visitors in your garden.


How?

• When battling weeds, choose to cultivate, hoe, or handpick weeds. It is especially important to remove weeds before seeds are formed. One mature weed can drop thousands of seeds, creating considerably more weed maintenance in the future. Using drip irrigation also reduces weed growth as water is directed only to the root area of plants and the bare soil between plants is not irrigated (where many weeds often grow). 
• Suppress weeds with the use of mulch or permeable landscape fabrics. Mulch and landscape fabrics prevent light from reaching weed seeds that may be in garden soil. Seeds need light to germinate and flourish. Maintaining a 2-4 inch layer of mulch will suppress weed growth as well as retain soil moisture, moderate soil temperature, and alleviate soil compaction.
• Control weeds with soil soilarization. Soil solarization is especially beneficial when treating large empty garden areas. During warm weather, clear plastic sheeting, 1 to 2 mils thick, is applied to wet soil for approximately six weeks. Most seeds are killed in the top few inches of soil. This may be especially appropriate for new or renovated garden areas.
  

  snail board
• Trap garden pests using newspaper rolls, boards, barriers, traps, and solution attractants. There are specific physical methods recommended for each pest.
• Hand-pick pests and their egg masses off plants or spray them off with a hard stream of water. Identify your pest to see if this simple effort can control the problem.

Tolerate a Small Number of Pests and Encourage Beneficials

Why?

Encouraging beneficial insects to visit or live in your garden will help you naturally control pests

How?

• Provide an environment that encourages beneficial organisms to your garden. Include plants that are attractive to beneficials and consider native plants as they will invite native beneficials.
• Tolerate a small number of pests to allow the beneficial visitors to find and control them. Natural enemies (beneficials) will only come and stay in your garden when there is a food source available.
• You may choose to release beneficial insects into your garden, such as predatory mites, parasitic nematodes, trichogramma wasps, lady beetles, green lacewings, and mealybug destroyers.

Pesticides

Consider Pesticides only after the above methods have been attempted without success.

Why?

Using a broad-spectrum pesticide is an attempt to kill every living insect, including the beneficials that may be working to deplete or eliminate your pests or are pollinating your garden. Eliminating all insects leaves a sterile environment that may be more susceptible to pest invasions in the future. Encouraging new and existing beneficial organisms to live in and visit your garden helps establish a healthy balance that keeps the pest population under control with minimal damage to plants and minimal use of expensive and toxic products.

How?

• Avoid the use of broad-spectrum pesticides. Use targeted solutions after identifying the pest.
• Choose the least toxic pesticide that is effective to control only the properly-identified pest. Horticultural oils, insecticidal soaps and microbial preparations are effective in controlling many garden pests and can be tried before resorting to more toxic chemical products.
• Read pesticide instructions at least two times before use; follow instructions carefully and accurately.
• Wear appropriate clothing, gloves and shoes to protect skin against contact with pesticide
• Store and dispose of pesticides properly.

More information on pesticides:

Pesticides, Controling Pests US Environmental Protection Agency

Pesticides and water quality University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources

How do Pesticides get into our Creeks and Rivers?  University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources