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What is "Integrated" Pest Control?

According to the EPA, "Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that relies on a combination of common-sense practices."

IPM programs use current, comprehensive information on the life cycles of pests and their interaction with the environment. This information, in combination with available pest control methods, is used to manage pest damage by the most economical means, and with the least possible hazard to people, property, and the environment.

People appreciate comfortable environments in which to live and work. Environments that are comfortable to people may also provide food, water and harborage (homes) to pests. By using integrated strategies for pest management, we can reduce numbers of pests as well as maintain a healthy environment.

IPM is a process for balancing the risks between pests and pesticides to achieve long term pest suppression. IPM uses a wide variety of management practices. Control strategies in an IPM program extend beyond the application of pesticides to include structural and procedural modifications that reduce the food, water, harborage, and access used by pests.

Why Use Integrated Pest Management?

IPM programs are designed to reduce health hazards to the people that inhabit the building or structures.

IPM programs accomplish this by using approaches such as sanitation, baiting for pests, trapping pests, and monitoring for pests and using the least hazardous/ least toxic pesticides when the need is demonstrated.

By having an IPM program in place, you are taking special protective measures to reduce pesticide exposure to non-pest organisms and the environment.

How Does Integrated Pest Management Work?

IPM is not a single pest control method but, rather, a series of pest management evaluations, decisions and controls. In practicing IPM, people who are aware of the potential for pest infestation follow a four-tiered approach. The four steps include:

1. Set Action Thresholds
   Before taking any pest control action, IPM first sets an action threshold, a point at which pest populations or environmental conditions indicate that pest control action must be taken. Sighting a single pest does not always mean control is needed. The level at which pests will either become an economic or health threat is critical to guide future pest control decisions.
   
   
2. Monitor and Identify Pests
   Not all insects, weeds, and other living organisms require control. Many organisms are innocuous, and some are even beneficial. IPM programs work to monitor for pests and identify them accurately, so that appropriate control decisions can be made in conjunction with action thresholds. This monitoring and identification removes the possibility that pesticides will be used when they are not really needed or that the wrong kind of pesticide will be used.
   
   
3. Prevention
   As a first line of pest control, IPM programs work to manage the crop, lawn, or indoor space to prevent pests from becoming a threat. In an agricultural crop, this may mean using cultural methods, such as rotating between different crops, selecting pest-resistant varieties, and planting pest-free rootstock. In a home it can be as simple as making sure clutter is reduced, window screens are keeping pests outside, and food is not available for pests. These control methods can be very effective and cost-efficient and present little to no risk to people or the environment.
   
   
4. Control
   Once monitoring, identification, and action thresholds indicate that pest control is required, and preventive methods are no longer effective or available, IPM programs then evaluate the proper control method both for effectiveness and risk. Effective, less risky pest controls are chosen first, including highly targeted chemicals, such as pheromones to disrupt pest mating, or mechanical control, such as trapping or weeding. If further monitoring, identifications and action thresholds indicate that less risky controls are not working, then additional pest control methods would be employed, such as targeted bait applications or the spraying of pesticides. Broadcast spraying of non-specific pesticides is a last resort.
   

How Can You Help with Integrated Pest Management in Your Home or Workplace?

Upon calling MB Integrated Pest Control, please leave your home/building in its present condition whenever and wherever possible. Our technician will need to inspect and identify possible pest entry/habitat areas to achieve quick and thorough extermination. Our technician will openly speak to you about his/her findings, point out specific problem areas, and coach you on cost-saving and preventive measures you may be able to apply, yourself.

AFTER our pest control technician's initial inspection, we suggest that you begin with exclusion and then move on to the other tasks (methods of IPM) listed below. Each plays an intimate role in aiding in the elimination and prevention of pests.

• Exclusion: Blocking entry points for pests such as caulking around windows, making sure door sweeps are tightly in place and patching holes.
  
  
• Yard/Grounds Maintenance: pest presences usually come from outdoor populations. Keep your grass mowed and trees and shrubs from becoming overgrown, you can help keep pest populations under control.
  
  Trees, shrubs, and plants should not be touching your home. It gives pests a bridge to crawl up and find places to come in. Pine straw and mulch should also be kept away from the exterior of your home. It serves as a place for many pests (such as cockroaches) to live and breed.
  
  
• Sanitation: Keeping a space clean and tidy. Food that is left out in the open is attractive to pests and can be the reason they come inside. Piles of clutter indoors can provide hidden shelter for pests to live in once they come inside.
  
  
• Traps: Provided by MB Integrated Pest Control, with service; amount appropriate to situation. There are a variety of traps for mammals (mouse traps, live traps) and for insects (pheromone traps, sticky traps). Traps can be used to determine what kind of problem you have, to monitor for the pest and can also be a way to help reduce populations.
  
  If you prefer live-trapping for release, make sure to have practiced exclusion by blocking the pests point of entry. This is especially good for larger mammals that may have somehow found their way into your home.
  
  
• Baits: Provided by MB Integrated Pest Control, with service; number appropriate to situation. Considered a safe chemical management option. Qualities of a good bait include: an odor that smells attractive to the pest, a pesticide that is effective against the pest, a holder or “bait station” that will prevent children or pets from being able to access it, and a design that is suited to the pests behavior.

These are just some of the tactics that can be used, but the main thing to keep in mind is that pests need food, water, and shelter. If you eliminate their food sources and shelter, pests will have to go elsewhere to fulfill their life requirements.

MB Integrated Pest Control has proven expertise in pest behaviors, likely habitats, and their reproduction/life cycles. Professional knowledge of these critical points, and more, provides safe and effective elimination management.

MB Integrated Pest Control will conduct a thorough search of your home's interior AND exterior to find problem areas, targeting actual pest locations rather than wasting time and money guessing where they may be. This practice ensures safer measures and greater success, by restricting supplies and materials to areas only where needed, not beyond.

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Information supporting the above environmental protection practices can be found within the related contents of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website. (See icon and link left panel)

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