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Integrated Pest and Pollinator Management

Overview

As noted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a science-based decision-making process that combines tools and strategies to identify and manage pests. As defined in 7 U.S.C. § 136r, IPM is “a sustainable approach to managing pests by combining biological, cultural, physical, and chemical tools in a way that minimizes economic, health, and environmental risks.”
IPM uses knowledge of pest and host biology, as well as biological and environmental monitoring, to respond to pest problems with management tactics and technologies designed to:
1. Prevent unacceptable levels of pest damage
2. Minimize the risk to people, property, infrastructure, natural resources, and the environment
3. Reduce the evolution of pest resistance to pesticides and other pest management practices

The diagram below from Entomology Today helps explain this a bit further. Click on the picture for a bigger version.


What is Integrated Pest Management?
Diagram courtesy Entomology Today

Integrated Pest and Pollinator Management (IPPM) is an expansion of this topic being espoused since 2015. The objective of integrated pest and pollinator management (IPPM) is to co-manage for pest control and pollination goals. Departing from the well-established concept of integrated pest management, IPPM includes pollinator management in a hierarchical decision support system of management actions.

Additional pictures of this

Usage Notes

How it Works

An example of IPPM is the planting of sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) in the environment. Some studies have shown that the sunflower’s pollen is helpful for the bees management of varroa in the hive. As noted in the “Journal of Economic Entomology” (and summarized below),

Sunflower pollen is low in protein compared to other bee-visited plants, and exclusively sunflower-based diets do not support development of honey and bumble bees when no additional pollen is provided. This has led many to the conclusion that sunflower pollen is inappropriate, at least as a sole food source, for bees that lack special physiological adaptations to its secondary metabolites and nutritional deficiencies. However, at the landscape level, each doubling of sunflower crop area was associated with a 28% reduction in mite infestation.

Additionally,

Sunflower pollen and goldenrod (Solidago) reduced gut infection with the trypanosomatid parasite Crithidia bombi in the bumble bee (Bombus impatiens). And sunflower cropland is associated with decreased infection intensity at the landscape scale.
In honey bees, consumption of sunflower pollen and honey reduced infection by the gut microsporidian Nosema ceranae - a parasite implicated in colony losses. Nurse bees exhibited infection-induced preference for sunflower honey.

Notes on Making One

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