Integrated Pest Management requires practitioners to have a wide range of knowledge about crop production practices and the pests that attack their crops. If a farmer does not possess this knowledge, then he or she can hire a crop consultant to provide the knowledge needed to develop and implement an effective IPM program for his or her farm. A good pest management practitioner or crop consultant should have a deep knowledge of:

	The IPM Process
	Cropping Patterns and Associated Key Pests
	Each Pest's Biology and Key Periods of Activity
	Predictive Models and Their Proper Use
	Economic Thresholds and Their Proper Use
	Effective Pest Management Tactics
	Pest Scouting and Monitoring Procedures

Understanding the IPM Process

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an approach to managing pests that uses all available information sources and a combination of management tactics. It is flexible and adaptable to many different situations. Regardless of what crop production system you manage, following an IPM approach ideally means that you:

1. Use field information on pest history, cultural practices, and environmental conditions to anticipate what pest problems you might encounter and develop a management plan. Using this information, you implement preventative pest management tactics when possible.

2. Monitor fields for evidence of crop injury and the pest(s) responsible, so you know:

• which pest species or complex of species are responsible for the injury
• the pest's life cycle, seasonality and vulnerable stages
• how widespread the pest population is in the field and how it is distributed
• whether the pest's population is increasing or decreasing
• what the proper economic threshold is to implement a management action
• when to initiate a control tactic for maximum effectiveness

3. Use multiple management tactics, whenever possible, to maintain pest populations below eco- nomically damaging or intolerable levels. This gives you a better chance of success and reduces the need for "emergency" actions, which almost always involve the use of a pesticide.

4. Use information obtained from scouting and prediction models to decide on which tactics you want to use and when to implement the tactics.

5. Only use pesticides as a last defense against a pest. Pesticides should only be used when other management tactics are inadequate to maintain pest populations below acceptable levels or are too costly to be economically implemented. When pesticides are used, you should always:

• use techniques that will slow development of insect resistance (e.g. rotate classes of pesticides, spot treat hotspots or edges, provide refugia for susceptible insects)
• use the most environmentally friendly pesticide that is cost effective and efficacious.  Be aware of the environmental trade-offs of the products you choose.
• try to minimize pesticide exposure and the use of highly toxic pesticides (i.e. people, pets, beneficial insects and wildlife).
• read, understand and follow all label specifications.

6. Keep and use records as an evaluation and planning tool.

7. Evaluate the effects of your pest management program (i.e. Were the pests suppressed adequately? Was it cost-effective? Were any side-effects of your actions unacceptable? What will you do next year?)

When faced with a pest problem, it appears as if an infestation of insects or an outbreak of a disease came out of nowhere. This is the impression one gets when he or she lacks an understanding of the pest's biology and behavior. A field may go years without a pest problem, and then, as though the pest spontaneously generated in the field, it suffers severe damage. A farmer or crop consultant may ask, why this field and not the one across the road? The answer to this question lies in the basic biological requirements of the pest. Biologists have known for years that every living organism is adapted to a specific set of environmental conditions, and therefore has specific needs. All living organisms require:

• moisture
• food
• shelter
• minerals
• a specific temperature range,
• light (plants need for photosynthesis), and
• mate(s), if sexually reproductive (not true for some diseases, insects, and plants which may be asexual organisms).

These are all the basic needs of an organism. If any one of them is lacking, the organism will perish or fail to produce offspring. To increase their chances of acquiring the necessary resources, organisms have developed many adaptations which help them locate and utilize these resources. For instance, most of our weed species have extremely high reproductive rates, have mechanisms that allow them to disperse easily over long distances, and have rapid growth rates to out-compete slower growing species for light, water, and nutrients. They are adapted to rapidly colonize disturbed areas, such as a freshly plowed field. If a field were left undisturbed for several hundred years, however, most weed species would disappear from the field and be replaced by a succession of other species such as shrubs and trees. Other adaptive mechanisms can be shown by European corn borer (ECB) and corn rootworm adults which have developed the ability to detect chemical volatiles given off by corn silks and tassels and identify fields suitable to lay their eggs. The prize for this adaptation is the high energy source in pollen grains that small larvae of the ECB need for proper development and adults of the corn rootworm need for egg development. This ability to detect chemical volatiles is common in insects. They use chemical communication to find food, mates, and shelter. Therefore, when an insect pest moves into a field, it is not arriving in the field at random, it is being attracted to a food source, mate, or shelter. We know that decaying organic matter, certain weed species, specific crop growth stages, and specific habitats can attract insects. Both diseases and weeds also require specific environmental conditions to survive and reproduce. Table 1 shows the known association of key pests with specific cropping systems and cultural practices. Knowledge of these relationships can help an IPM practitioner or crop consultant anticipate which pests are likely to occur in a field.