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Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
IPM is a combination of common sense and scientific principles. It's a way of thinking about pest management that values:
- Using knowledge about the pest's habits, life cycle, needs and dislikes
- Using the least toxic methods first, up to and including pesticides
- Monitoring the pest's activity and adjusting methods over time
- Tolerating harmless pests, and
- Setting a threshold to decide when it's time to act
These actions are important parts of any IPM endeavor:
- Identify the pest in the most specific terms possible
- Learn about the pest's biology (habits, life cycle, needs and dislikes)
- Take steps to exclude the pest from the area, if possible
- Try to remove the pest's food, water and shelter
- Determine the pest's travel patterns and find their home-base
- Identify all of your control options (the "tools in the toolbox") before acting
To learn more about IPM, choose from the following topics:
If you have questions about this, or any pesticide-related topic, please call NPIC at 1-800-858-7378 (7:30am-3:30pm PST), or email us at npic@ace.orst.edu.
Additional Resources:
- Integrated Pest Management - eXtension.org
- Bio-Integral Resource Center (BIRC)
- IPM Institute of North America
- Our Water - Our World - Bay Area Storm-water Management Agencies Association
- National Roadmap for Integrated Pest Management - U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
- Biological Control Information Center - Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University
- What "Integrated Pest Management" Means - Environmental Protection Agency
- About Integrated Pest Management - U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Integrated Pest Management in Buildings - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- PestWise - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- Choosing a Pest Control Company - IPM is the Key - Oregon State University Extension Service
Last updated October 23, 2012
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