Integrated Pest Management in Urban Areas

• Introduction

• Integrated Pest Management
• USDA Quarantine Program

• Management Options
• Organizing a Community-Wide Suppression Program
• Treatment Methods
• Biology and Identification
• Medical Problems
• History of Control Efforts
• Fire Ant Insecticides
• Policy Statement
• Acknowledgments
• Print this Lesson

Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, is a systems approach to managing insect, mite, disease and weed pests. It uses a combination of the most compatible and ecologically sound pest suppression tactics to keep pest populations below levels that cause problems. IPM uses cultural, biological and chemical methods. This bulletin describes site-specific, goal-oriented management programs for urban areas where fire ants are a problem. The goal of IPM strategies for fire ants is to prevent or eliminate problems caused by unacceptably high numbers of fire ants, rather than eliminating all ants from the ecosystem.