Early Detection

Early detection of pests and pest conducive conditions function together like an early warning system for pests, helping to prevent or minimize a pest outbreak. Tracking environmental conditions like weather and food or harborage availability is very important.

Monitoring For Structural Pests

Monitoring combines visual inspection, trapping, and communication with staff that use the area. “Passive” traps catch pests off guard during their normal activities. “Baited” traps contain an attractant or pheromone. Species-specific pheromone traps have become especially common in the area of stored product pest monitoring. Other types of traps have physical shapes and attractants that are designed to exploit the behavior of groups such as stinging wasps or flies, and you can often employ these traps to control pests as well as for monitoring. Rodents are also trapped using a variety of mechanical devices. Discovery of rodent droppings, gnawing damage, or “grease marks” is an obvious sign of rodent infestation.

Monitoring For Outdoor Pests

Monitoring is the regular inspection of the grounds throughout the growing season, and allow detection of pests before they reach damaging levels. By monitoring, a trained employee can assess the need for action, evaluate how well control tactics have worked, and develop site history information that helps in anticipating future problems. This act is the crux of IPM and distinguishes it from conventional pest control programs. Monitoring identifies areas that are most likely to need treatment, and allows the pest manager to pinpoint the time when a pest is most vulnerable to treatment.

Proper Pest Identification

Not all insects, weeds, and other living organisms require control. Many organisms are innocuous, and some are even beneficial. IPM programs work to monitor for pests and identify them accurately, so that appropriate control decisions can be made in conjunction with action thresholds. This monitoring and identification removes the possibility that pesticides will be used when they are not really needed or that the wrong kind of pesticide will be used and what method will be most beneficial moving forward.