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How Much Do You Know about IPM and How it Works? By Dave Han, Ph.D., Auburn University & Alabama Cooperative Extension System
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concept of integrated pest management (IPM) has been around for decades. IPM is taught in colleges and schools across the country, yet it still can be a somewhat mysterious concept. Applying IPM to turfgrass pests can sometimes be very difficult, because maintaining turfgrass often (but not always) is very different from growing a crop for sale. However, the principle of using an integrated program to manage pests can and should be at the forefront of our best management practices for turf. So let’s take a quick look at the concepts behind IPM and how it can work in turfgrass.
What is IPM? So what is IPM? A great source for a much more in-depth description of IPM is in the Southern IPM Center’s website (https://southernipm.org/about/what-is-ipm/). Their short intro sentence is worth quoting:
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“ The Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a sciencebased, sustainable decision-making process that uses information on pest biology, environmental data, and technology to manage pest damage in a way that minimizes both economic costs and risks to people, property, and the environment.” With that in mind, let’s examine some basic IPM concepts.
IPM uses a variety of tools to manage pests, focusing on the ones the work best with the least negative side effects. The key aspect of IPM is integration. A true IPM program uses as many different techniques and methods for managing pests as are available, including cultural practices, biologicals 20
and chemical pesticides. The goal is to find which tools manage pests to an acceptable level with the least cost — and here, cost can mean money, environmental impact, health risks to those using the turf, potential liability, or (usually) a combination of all of these. By far, the most important tool in IPM is the mind. IPM is a very active process. It requires a thorough understanding of both the turfgrass and the pests, careful monitoring of the environment, scouting of pest populations, decision-making regarding thresholds of pest populations, and knowledge of many different pest management techniques and when they will or will not help. The best IPM programs are very local in nature: what works at one site may not work at another. Flexibility, the ability to think on the run and, perhaps most of all, common sense are key elements in IPM.
IPM for turf focuses on the grass and how to keep it healthy. The best possible way to deal with pests is to not have them invade turf in the first place. While this is not always possible, a truly integrated approach to pest management means that every decision made on matters relating to turf care will include consideration of how turf pests will be impacted. How many times have you heard or read that the best defense against this weed or that disease is a healthy turf? That’s because it’s true! But there is a catch. In the real world, turf managers often must prioritize factors other than grass health. Everything the turf manager does to the grass should be done in order to maximize turf health and minimize stress. But often this is not the case. We grow grass specifically to stress it and beat it up. For example, sports fields and putting greens are inherently unhealthy places to grow grass because
