Encourage Healthy Plants
An unhealthy plant sends out chemical signals which attract insect pests directly to it. Step one of IPM is researching your plants, knowing what they need to be healthy, and setting up your garden so that each plant has the environmental conditions they need. Consult with our knowledgeable staff at Green Acres Nursery & Supply to learn more about what conditions your plants need to grow.

Avoid Creating a Pest Paradise
Just like learning what your plants need in order to thrive, it’s good to learn what environmental conditions the pests like so you can avoid them. For example, over-watering your lawn can lead to fungal diseases and weeds. Experiment to see what the minimum water requirements are for your lawn and cut down on excess water usage to address those problems.

Monitor Your Garden
The most important step in practicing IPM is careful monitoring. If you catch small problems before they get too big, then you won’t have to resort to harsh methods of pest control. Ideally, you ‘ll take a walk around your garden every day. Once you spot something abnormal, take a sample or a picture into one of our Green Acres Nursery & Supply locations for help identifying the potential problem.

For every insect pest which causes damage to your plant, there is a natural predator that attacks and destroys it. IPM encourages you to avoid using broad-spectrum insecticides, because they may kill just as many good bugs as bad bugs. Learn to identify beneficial insects and make your garden a welcoming environment for them by providing a variety of flowers as a food source.

Cultural control means changing your gardening practices if you find that you have accidentally created favorable conditions for pests. For example, if you have your rose bushes too close together, you may have fungal issues due to poor air circulation. The cultural control solution is to transplant them so they have enough space. Don’t be discouraged if you’ve made a mistake in your cultural practices. Gardening requires patience and a willingness to learn, and if you're practicing IPM you obviously have both.

Mechanical and physical controls are the best way to directly kill or deter pests without using any kind of chemicals. They are usually only effective if you catch the pests early, so keep up with your monitoring. Examples of physical controls are spraying aphids with the hose, adding a thick layer of mulch to keep the weeds down, and putting up nets to protect your harvest from the birds.

When the pest problem becomes too severe to be remedied with the above methods alone, it’s time for chemical control. Choose pesticides with minimal residual impact on the environment, target the pest you are combating specifically, and apply sparingly to the affected plants. Always follow label instructions to avoid unintended contamination of air, soil or water sources.