Last month I talked about what Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is and why it is important to the home gardener.  I feel the topic is worthy of a second installment.

To review, IPM combines the most appropriate cultural practices, and biological, chemical and mechanical controls to control the pest population, while causing the least harm to the surrounding environment.  One of the goals of IPM is intelligent and prudent pesticide use.  IPM is a fancy term for figuring out if you have a problem with pests that requires treatment, then taking care of the problem in the least toxic manner.

If you remember from last month, one of the main cornerstones to IPM is pest monitoring:  determining if a pest population exists, and whether that population is at an acceptable level, then making prudent decisions whether to use control methods.

The second main cornerstone to IPM is getting the idea across that some damage is acceptable, a hard concept for some, especially those who want the perfect lawn.  "Perfect" doesn't necessarily mean healthy.  A healthy stand of lawn contains bugs--it's a fact.  Good bugs as well as bad bugs, and a healthy lawn can withstand some pest damage without requiring control.

Poor cultural practices--compaction from frequent mowing, low mowing, over-fertilizing, over-watering, and loss of beneficial insects due to excessive pesticide use--can weaken a lawn to an unhealthy state, making it exceptionally susceptible to a pest invasion. 

Keeping your lawn and yard healthy by first taking care of the soil and area in which the plants grow can greatly increase the plants' natural ability to resist or tolerate the damage caused by the pests in the first place. 

The goal with integrated pest management is not to eradicate the pest, and all the other organisms along with it, but to reduce the pest population to an aesthetically acceptable level.