Assessing Compatibility of a Pesticide in an IPM Program

Abstract

Judicious use of pesticides is generally accepted as an important pest-control tactic in integrated pest management programs, but not all pesticides are equally appropriate. When this project began, there was not an appropriate tool or set of criteria available to evaluate how well a proposed pesticide use fit within an IPM program. The Western Integrated Pest Management Center and Western Inter-Regional Project #4 (IR-4) collaborated to develop the IPM Compatibility Guidance Document-a set of criteria and instructions for evaluating the potential IPM fit of a proposed pesticide use. The IPM Criteria Guidance Document includes a set of instructions and examples to help IR-4 project requestors develop a ranking and a short narrative description (termed an IPM Fit Statement by the IR-4 Project) of a proposed pesticide use within an IPM program. The IPM Criteria Guidance Document lists 21 specific factors in eight categories-efficacy, economic benefit, nontarget effects, resistance concerns, environmental fate, worker risk, compatibility with monitoring, and utility as a preventative-with descriptors of affirmative, intermediate, and negative compatibility attributes. A survey of project requestors and their IPM Fit Statement submissions indicates that the IPM Criteria Guidance Document is helpful and its use increased the breadth of IPM factors addressed in IR-4 project requests. The IPM Criteria Guidance Document, as a model for formalizing pesticide 'fit' assessment, may have broader application in evaluating pest-management tools for their compatibility in IPM programs.