“Integrated pest management programs use a range of methods and disciplines to assure stable and economical crop production while minimizing risks to humans, animals, plants and the environment. IPM weighs costs, benefits and impacts on health and the environment, and thus identifies the most suitable ways to control pests. Options include prevention, monitoring, mechanical trapping devices, natural predators, biological pesticides and, if appropriate, chemical pesticides.”
– U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Integrated Pest Management is a concept that was developed in the agriculture industry in the 1950s and 1960s in response to outcries about the overuse of organochlorine pesticides such as DDT and chlordane. Rocked by the accusations contained in Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, the agriculture industry developed IPM principles to better manage pest populations while reducing the use of pesticides.
In the early 1980s, when the lawn care industry was growing exponentially, it too came under attack from environmental groups indicting the control products used by the green industry. This initiated the beginnings of the IPM movement in the “urban” landscape.
IPM In The Real World |
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Would you describe your pest and disease control program as a form of Integrated Pest Management? That’s the question we asked a number of our readers in an anonymous fax survey for Lawn & Landscape magazine. While not scientific, it provided some interesting insight into which IPM concepts contractors use and how IPM fits into the landscape contractor’s program of maintenance. First of all, every respondent said that they consider their program to be IPM-oriented. However, most indicated that their customers do not really understand what IPM is all about. One respondent said he believes that three-fourths of his customers understand IPM principles, but the rest of the responses fell between 10 percent and 40 percent.
We also asked the respondents to describe how their programs conform to the principles of IPM, and here is a sample of their responses: - Paul Schrimpf |
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Today, “official” definitions of IPM in the urban landscape are often clouded by complex, tedious explanations. For contractors who use IPM today, the term simply means using all of the pest management tools at their disposal.
STRATEGIES THAT WORK. There are plenty of success stories related to IPM, and companies interviewed for this article said one of the big advantages is that it sets their companies apart from their competitors.
“Some larger companies are still paying technicians based on the number of treatments they produce per day,” said Gary LaScalea, president, GroGreen, Plano, Texas. “We look at each customer individually, taking into consideration the needs of the site and recommending a program.”
“My view is, if you don’t look at IPM as a professional lawn care contractor,” he urged, “then it hurts the entire industry.”
Companies vary to the degree to which they employ IPM principles, but they all have some factors in common. First and foremost, successful IPM programs require a well-trained front-line work force.
“You need to have a trained employee, and this requirement has led to us keeping employees year-round for the last 10 years,” stressed Bob Ottley, president, One Step Lawn and Tree Care, North Chili, N.Y. “By the time you get somebody trained to identify those pests and know what product to use, how to use it and when to use it, you can’t run the risk of losing them.
“Our training is really ongoing,” Ottley continued. “We send technicians to seminars, but even then it takes new people a couple of years to get to the point that they have really something and understand what they are doing.”
“We try to hire someone with a minimum of a two-year degree in horticulture so they at least have the basics,” revealed Laurie Broccolo, president, Broccolo Lawn & Tree Care, Rochester, N.Y. “Also, they must have pesticide certification when we hire them or they have to get it in a month.
“We also hold weekly meetings throughout the season so everybody is together on the discussion of what we’re doing,” explained Broccolo.
One of the most difficult training exercises Broccolo goes through with technicians is getting them to make decisions about whether a lawn needs to be fertilized. “They may need to consider the soil in the area,” she said. “If the turf looks good and the ground is sandy, the technician may want to fertilize to keep it looking good. Another customer may have a clay soil and not require fertilizer. As long as the technician can justify the decision to the customer and the results are there, that’s alright.
“Technicians need to be comfortable about their own expertise, and realize that is what the customer is paying for – a consultant and a true horticulturist,” Broccolo concluded. “They are making a decision and managing that property.”
“We train technicians to determine how significant a problem is and to recognize when it needs to be treated,” said David Hansen, vice president, Environmental Care, Calabasas, Calif. “For instance, if there’s an aphid problem on an ash tree that is planted over a parking lot where cars are parked and honeydew is dripping, it may be a problem that should be treated. If it’s in the back of a lot surrounded by turf, there’s no call for treatment.”
Another important factor for IPM is diversity in the number of products and approaches that are provided for technicians to use in the field. Keeping a versatile and well-stocked truck provides flexibility.
“We purchased customized units that have separate tanks for tree and lawn care, fertilizer and an injection unit for weed control,” explained Broccolo. “We carry a couple of different products for the tree tanks. We also have a flat top to stack granular fertilizers – some are straight fertilizer, and some have preemergence. This allows the technician to make a variety of decisions based on the condition of the property.”
Ottley has found combination spreader/sprayer units very useful in the field. “If we want to use a granular product, we can spread the granular product and turn on the sprayers when we need them,” he explained.
Knowing when and what to apply is a matter of history and scouting, he added. “Even the preemergence crabgrass control we do is based on where crabgrass infested lawns last year,” said Ottley. “For long-time customers, we track infestations so those areas are always treated, then we hit the hot spots, such as the edges of driveways, sidewalks, direct sunny areas, weak areas of the lawn and the southern exposure of hills.”
“We use a more rational approach to pest control than in years past,” stressed Hansen. “If the pest is not causing a safety problem, is not going to kill the plant and is not an eyesore, leave it alone.”
The method chosen to apply a pesticide can also be viewed as a part of IPM, especially in the care of trees and ornamentals. “We’ve been successful with soil injecting some products, so we don’t have to spray around buildings or windows where people are coming in and out,” Hanson explained. “Customers are as against the indiscriminate use of these products as we are, and I think it puts us in a position of being seen as more environmentally friendly as a company.”
The author is Managing Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine.
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