Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

Extension IPM programs at the University of Idaho were established in the early 1970's with a pilot area-wide project that brought together extension and research faculty in plant pathology and entomology with regulatory personnel at state and federal agencies. From those beginnings evolved our current statewide mission: to help citizens of Idaho manage pests in ways minimize threats to human health and environmental quality while maximizing the profitability of pest control action.

We work to those goals by conducting educational programs and adaptive research that provides our citizens with the tools and training needed to apply integrated pest management, both on the farm and around their homes. Our program emphasizes key agricultural field and row crops but also includes forest and range lands managed for commercial, recreational and wildlife uses. And while we remain a rural state, rapidly growing urban populations in the Boise area and resort destinations in northern Idaho mandate educational outreach about urban pest management.

Surveys we have conducted since 1992 have shown that virtually all farmers in Idaho already are using certain elements of IPM programs, especially cultural controls, pest scouting and thresholds.  Grower interest too is high in biological control; more than 70%  of potato growers surveyed responded that they wanted more biological control tools. Yet conventional chemical pesticides remain an integral part of pest control. Idahoans are highly concerned about pesticide residues and food safety, costs of crop protection chemicals and long-term sustainability, groundwater contamination by agrichemicals and development of pesticide-resistant insects, pathogens and weeds. Hence, our overall priority is moving IPM practice from a pest scouting-and-thresholds "pesticide prescriptive" approach to a pesticides-as-a-last-resort "bio-intensive approach". Potential loss of pesticides to the implementations of the Food Quality Protection Act adds to the urgency.

Revised: August 27, 2008

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