IPM Principles

Must-know facts

• IPM = Integrated Pest Management. A strategy combining multiple tactics to manage pests at acceptable levels while minimizing risk to people, non-targets, and the environment.
• Essential IPM ingredients: Know your pest (ID first), set thresholds, conduct inspections, use multiple tactics, gain cooperation.
• Action threshold: The pest level at which control action becomes necessary. Not 'zero tolerance' — different pests have different thresholds in different settings.
• IPM inspection goes beyond a sanitation report: looks for pest requisites (food, water, shelter), signs of pests, entry points, and IPM deficiencies.
• The pest triangle: pest + host + environment. Removing or reducing any side reduces the pest problem.
• Non-chemical IPM tactics: sanitation, exclusion, harborage denial, pest-proofing, interception, quarantine, environmental alteration, trapping, monitoring, vacuuming, temperature modification, modified atmospheres.
• IPM control hierarchy (pyramid, least to most disruptive): prevention/cultural → mechanical/physical → biological → chemical.
• Monitoring tools: sticky traps, light traps, pheromone traps, flushing agents, moisture meters, boroscopes, motion detectors, IR cameras, digital cameras, trained dogs.
• Food handling facilities: FDA and USDA regulate pesticide applications. GMPs (Good Manufacturing Practices) govern contractor behavior. Third-party auditors (AIB, NSF, etc.) evaluate compliance.
• Pest-proof design: building design that denies pests access, harborage, and resources before they enter.

What the exam likes to ask

• If an answer starts with 'inspect and identify the pest first,' it is usually the IPM-correct answer.
• Thresholds are NOT about tolerating pests — they define when action becomes justified based on risk or damage level.
• If the question involves a food plant, think FDA, USDA, GMPs, and third-party auditors.
• The IPM pyramid puts chemical control at the top (smallest, least frequent) — not at the base.

Field takeaways

• IPM documentation (service reports, monitoring records) protects the company and communicates value to the client.
• Understanding thresholds helps technicians explain to clients why one cockroach in a hospital matters but one cricket outside a warehouse may not.
• Non-chemical tactics often provide the longest-lasting control — bait stations catch pests, but exclusion stops them from coming back.

Listen, watch, read

▶

Science of Pest Management

10:10

Module 2 quiz

25 questions. Answer them all, then grade to see the reasoning.