Application should include
- identifying pests, their hosts, and beneficial organisms (i.e., biological control)
- establishing scouting and monitoring guidelines for each pest species
- establishing an action threshold for the pest(s)
- scheduling the introduction of management practices
- alternative management practices
- evaluating and implementing cultural practices and biological control strategies.
Process/Skill Questions:
- What are the relationships among the different facets of integrated pest management?
- How do alternative management practices influence conventional management practices?
- How does monitoring reduce the need for chemical control?
- Why is it important to select tactics that are effective, economical, and have the least impact on non-target species and the environment?
- Why is it important to select methods of control that will affect beneficial organisms as little as possible while suppressing the pest(s)?
- What are the differences among action threshold, economic threshold, and threshold?
- What is a biological control?
- What are the four types/guilds of biological control agents used with insects and mites?