Communicating IPM

For many lawn care CEOs, winter is time to scrutinize P&L statements, perform system-wide SWOT analyses and hold HR and R&D staff meetings to put the business on track for a better ROI after the first of the year.

Of course, once customers renew their accounts and technicians head back to their routes, LCOs – lawn care operators, that is – need to start speaking plain English. This is particularly true regarding a lawn care acronym that is gaining popularity and importance: IPM.

Known in long-hand as integrated pest management, IPM accepts weeds, insects and diseases as parts of the great outdoors, focusing on more holistic pest management practices and the judicious use of pesticides. Even with this guideline, IPM definitions vary widely, and recent legislative and regulatory actions are compounding the issue. But there are two points on which everyone involved agrees: IPM is an effective and environmentally sound way to deter lawn pests, and communicating this information to both customers and employees is crucial.

IPM: UNDEFINED. A given company’s definition and practice of IPM is dependent upon region-specific pest problems, as well as customers’ expectations.

"How you practice IPM all depends on what type of plant material is there, what type of insects or diseases they’re prone to, and the history and weather in the area," explains Cindy Halm, vice president, Broccolo Tree & Lawn Care, Rochester, N.Y.

Instead of trying to define the concept, Halm looks at IPM as a systematic approach to caring for a client’s property. "Scouting is our No. 1 practice and we scout on a regular basis," she explains. "When we find a problem, we first use a combination of cultural practices like pruning out the particular insect or disease, or advising the customer on watering and mowing practices."

Philip Catron has a similar approach. "We use a three-pronged approach of prevention, monitoring and controlling," comments the president of NaturaLawn of America, Frederick, Md. "Prevention can be done first and foremost by conserving a pest’s natural enemies, using improved plant and turfgrass varieties and invigorating lawns with aeration and overseeding. You can drastically minimize any need for insect controls with prevention alone."

Catron and Halm agree that monitoring soil and plant conditions is essential. "Whether you’re monitoring soil temperatures or phenological indicators, after several seasons of tracking you can directly correlate climactic events with the presence of certain pests," Catron says.

Contrary to some IPM beliefs, when monitoring and cultural practices aren’t enough to inhibit pests, LCOs do apply pesticides, albeit sparingly. For instance, "if there aren’t any natural predators present, we’ll make a treatment using a consistently effective product that’s least toxic to the environment, our customers and our employees," Halm says.

Other contractors incorporate these IPM principles, though they may focus less on monitoring and more on using pesticides wisely.

"We try to grow healthy lawns and plants by advising our customers on cultural practices, but they’ve seen you go over the entire lawn with every product so often that it’s a different mindset for the customer," comments Bob Ottley, president, One Step Lawn & Tree Care, North Chili, N.Y. "To incorporate some IPM principles, we use an all-granular fertilizer with a high sulfur-coated urea product to get better fertilization, which keeps a lot of weeds from emerging in the first place. From there, instead of spraying pesticides only where there are weeds, we use the theory of spraying everything except where there are no weeds." Though the distinction is small, Ottley explains that this helps his technicians miss fewer weeds in the lawn, thereby reducing customer callbacks.

CLIENTS DON’T HAVE ESP. Even with diverse working definitions, IPM still is a strong trend in the green industry, thanks to communication among both LCOs and lawn care product suppliers.

"I think people are more aware of IPM and it’s something LCOs can talk about with homeowners that most of them will understand – ‘These are the things we’re doing to reduce the amount of pesticides we use,’" says Kyle Miller, turf and ornamental senior technical specialist, BASF, Raleigh, N.C.

Halm takes many different approaches to educate her clients about the IPM process.

"Making sure that the homeowner and technician are communicating is the most important part," Halm says. "So we make sure to hire and train our employees so they’re able to explain – face-to-face or in writing – exactly what they found on the property and the steps needed to correct the problem."

Also, Broccolo Tree & Lawn Care publishes quarterly client newsletters, maintains up-to-date informational links on their Web site and leaves "Green Tips" fliers with clients on every visit. "The fliers are one of our best educational tools with information about things that we may see during that time of year or reminders about cultural practices for the homeowner," Halm adds.

Still, Halm and Ottley agree that explaining IPM to sell the service is less effective than marketing the level of expertise that comes with IPM.

"When we started incorporating IPM, we explained to our customers what it was, but during applications we tried to make it as invisible as possible," Ottley says. "That lessened any concern on their part that we weren’t making the right applications on their lawns, but let them see the positive results at the same time."

"Instead of marketing IPM, we market the level of service and the education of our technicians," Halm adds.

In terms of employee experience, Catron notes that one hurdle of IPM is ensuring that all employees believe in and understand the program. "If you don’t believe that IPM will work, it will be impossible to train your people," he says. "Your doubts will come across, so IPM won’t be practiced it in the field and you probably won’t hold technicians accountable."

NaturaLawn of America employees receive between 40 and 60 hours of classroom training during the first month of employment, followed by two months of ride-along experience before a technician goes out on his or her own. Additionally, the company has three-day regional training sessions each winter and six agronomic manuals covering insects, diseases, fertility, IPM, calibration and general operations, which employees must study.

For an equally intense training program including classroom sessions, ride-alongs and weekly company meetings, Ottley says his company spends $3,000 to $6,000 per employee, annually, for ongoing training.

Though the training investment may seem steep, "what would it cost the company not to do that?" Catron asks. "If I can keep a knowledgeable employee for five years or longer, that translates into huge savings in terms of recruitment, lost time and even more training. We get back 10-fold what we invest in training."

LAW OF THE LAND. But while IPM seems to be holding strong, with 57.5 percent of respondents to a Lawn & Landscape Online poll reporting that they use some IPM principles or strict IPM guidelines in their lawn care operations, label changes and legislation is threatening IPM in some areas. In 2000, Ottley expressed concern that new requirements for 48-hour notification of pesticide applications would increase his operating costs to the point where IPM may no longer be possible.

"Thankfully, my company has not had to comply with the 48-hour notification because our county has not opted-in to the law," Ottley notes. "I do know a few companies who adopted that practice and moved away from IPM because they can’t afford to miss something after they make a notification. Rather than risk expensive callbacks, a lot of companies have returned to blanket spraying."

Halm also is concerned about the notification laws, commenting that any increase in pest populations during that two-day period could severely harm a landscape. "If I found that a particularly damaging insect like a spruce spider mite had reached a threshold level, that population could do significant damage before I’d be able to treat the area," she explains. "At that point, the insects would be more mature and there would be more of them, so I would end up using either more pesticides to control it or a more toxic pesticide because the insect is older."

At the same time, Catron sees other types of legislation as helpful for IPM in general.

"Last year the state of Maryland finally passed a law that any property more than 10,000 square feet must be soil tested before any kind of application or treatment is made," Catron says. "I think that’s a good thing. How do you expect a doctor to treat you properly without a blood test? A legitimate soil sample will show you where nutrient and pH ranges are and will help define some of the management practices you should use."

While practicing IPM may seem like a large task – especially with the EPA placing restrictions on certain active ingredients – LCOs need not have PhDs in order to implement the approach in their programs. "It’s not a difficult switch to make when you start using IPM in your business," Ottley says. "You just have to make sure all your people are on board and that your customers have a basic understanding that you’re being a good steward of environmental health."

The author is assistant editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at lspiers@lawnandlandscape.com.