Integrated Pest Management: Strategy Before Spray

Integrated Pest Management is a structured approach: know the pest, monitor its numbers, act only when a threshold is crossed, then choose the least disruptive option. Spraying on a fixed calendar — 'every 7th day' — is the opposite of IPM.

The IPM decision cycle

1. 1.Identify the pest correctly
2. 2.Monitor weekly with traps and field walks
3. 3.Know the action threshold for your crop and pest
4. 4.Choose control: cultural → biological → botanical → chemical
5. 5.Evaluate and record results

Botanicals fit naturally into IPM as the selective protection layer — effective against target pests while conserving the predators that do free pest control. The result is a system that costs less, resists less, and earns more from premium markets.