This web site is designed to provide a window or a one-stop guide to IPM information from Texas A&M University and its many departments, units and agencies. It also provides a link to related information from other sources. Much of the information is available because of links to departmental sites on campus and at Texas A&M Research and Extension Centers located across the state. This is not meant to detract from any other site but rather as a customer service feature to those seeking IPM information from Texas A&M University.
The Goal of IPM:
The goal of IPM is not to to eradicate pests, but to eliminate pest problems by strengthening and stabilizing the landscape so that conditions are more favorable for plants than for pests. This balance is achieved by employing a combination of practices to prevent or avoid pest problems rather than treating them once they occur. By using scouting and monitoring practices for pests that include insects and other arthropods, actions to suppress population levels can be made in a timely manner, using a combination of the most environmentally-friendly and cost-effective tactics available.
Emphasis is given to cultural (non-chemical tactics) and biological (biological control using predators, parasite and pathogens) methods of control. Properly-applied chemical control methods are used only when justified, and then by choosing the least toxic methods.