Integrated Pest Management is a method used within the pest control industry to solve many of the pest problems you find in residential and commercial buildings. The shoot first and ask questions later method of pest control does not apply within the Integrated Pest Management system of controlling pests. IPM deals with five(5) steps, which should be followed to obtain the most effective control. These five(5) steps are:
- Cultural
- Physical
- Mechanical
- Biological
- Chemical
CULTURAL
Insects need food, water and shelter to survive. When you can remove any of these needs it will reduce the population of an infestation. The biggest part of cultural control deals with sanitation. Sanitation means to "clean up excess food and water. Also clean up areas that could be possible harborages for insects".
PHYSICAL CONTROL
Physical control is mostly the exclusion of pests. Exclusion means to "prevent or exclude a pest from entering a certain area or infesting an area. This would include sealing holes on the exterior of buildings to prevent rodents. Also seal cracks and crevices inside buildings and restaurants that might be harborage areas for cockroaches and other insects.
MECHANICAL
Mechanical control simply means to use traps for rodents in areas where possible rather than use poison bait. In controlling cockroaches we can use baits, and sticky traps before using chemical control methods.
BIOLOGICAL CONTROL
Biological control is where we introduce a natural predator, of the target pest, into the infested area. An example would be to introduce a cat into an area infested with mice.
CHEMICAL CONTROL
Chemical control should always be the last step in trying to control a pest infestation. This does not mean pesticides should not be used! Pesticides play a very important part of our pest control problems.
