Pests: IPM Intro

Description

Pests: IPM Intro

Image: UNC CEHS COEC

Big Idea: IPM is using practical, low-cost solutions and doing them simultaneously to monitor, clean, and exclude. Safer pesticides should be used only as a last resort.

Talking Points:

• Evidence shows that IPM reduces exposure to allergens and to cockroaches (and also to pesticides)
• IPM is cost effective in the long term:
• 2004 study showed that IPM was initially more costly but much more effective in reducing cockroaches compared to conventional pesticide treatment;
• study found 24.7 cockroaches/housing unit before IPM and 3.9 cockroaches/housing unit after IPM, sustained for at least 8 months

Sources:
Housing Interventions and Health: A Review of the Evidence, Jan 2009
Miller and Meek, 2004, Journal of Economic Entomology