How Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Works for YOU

Integrated pest management (IPM) involves combining chemical treatments, cultural practices, and biological controls to manage pests at a level that will not show damage to plants. This means it's important for Broccolo to be on top of pest outbreaks before the populations get out of control.

It's not the time of year that governs pest activity, it's the availability of its host. Viburnum leaf beetle larvae will hatch out at the exact time that the viburnum leaves have emerged and are nutritious.

Scientists, farmers, and observant hobbyists notice what's going on in the plant world at the time of these pest outbreaks, and this is one of the ways we know how to schedule our treatments. For example, when forsythia blooms, we know it's the perfect time to put down pre-emergence crabgrass control. When the star magnolias bloom, it's time to start scouting for gypsy moths. Treat euonymus scale crawlers when kousa dogwoods are in bloom.

This method of timing treatments is much more accurate than the old calendar-spray;method. No matter how weird our weather is, these relationships among the plants/pests remain the same. There is a way of predicting when these events will be coming--it's called growing degree days. Growing degree days are a way of measuring biological timings.

Our friends at the Cornell Cooperative Extension have provided us with growing degree day information for most of our pests. By checking the measure of growing degree days frequently, we can prepare a few days in advance for our inspections.