City of Santa Fe IPM Program
What is IPM?
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a decision-making process for managing pests that uses monitoring to determine pest injury levels and primarily uses cultural, mechanical, physical, and biological tools to minimize health, environmental, and financial risks. The method uses extensive knowledge about pests, such as infestation thresholds, life histories, environmental requirements, and natural enemies to complement and facilitate biological and other natural control of pests. The method uses the least toxic synthetic pesticides only as a last resort to manage pests.
The Goal of IPM
The goal of IPM is not 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. By using scouting and monitoring practices for pests (insects, other arthropods, weeds, pathogens, or vertebrates), 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.