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Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

The roots of IPM can be traced to the late 1880s when "ecology" was identified as the foundation of scientific plant protection. The advent of modern synthetic insecticides in the mid 1940s resulted in a shift of focus to pesticide technology. Over the next 30 years, recognition of the limitations, and often detrimental consequences of over reliance on insecticides, led to the formulation of the concepts of IPM.  In 1972, President Nixon formally committed the U.S. government to the development and promotion of IPM.  In reality, pesticide-based pest control still predominates U.S. agriculture.  However, biologically intensive control technologies are increasingly displacing agrochemically intensive technologies. 
 

Photograph (above): Alfalfa weevil, Hypera postica (Gyllenhal) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). This destructive pest of alfalfa (lucerne) was accidentally established in North America on three occasions.  Alfalfa weevil has been the target of classical biological control efforts since its discovery in North America more than 90 years ago.   These efforts have resulted in the establishment of at least 9 exotic parasitoids and egg predators.  This once devastating pest is now largely controlled in the eastern U.S. by these natural enemies. See Alfalfa IPM to learn more about this insect.

About This Site

Welcome to the University of Minnesota's electronic textbook of Integrated Pest Management featuring contributed chapters by internationally recognized experts.

Our concept in creating this web page is to provide an electronic alternative or complement to printed textbooks for communicating information on integrated pest management (IPM). Our objectives are to provide: 1) a venue for easily maintaining and up-dating "state of the art" information from the world's leading experts on all aspects of IPM, 2) a resource economically deliverable anywhere in the world that can be freely downloaded and used by students, teachers, and IPM practitioners, 3) a forum for the international presentation of practical information and theory on IPM, 4) links to the vast and rapidly growing IPM resources available on the Internet including photographs and decision-support software.

Future

We plan to assemble a large number of "chapters" relating to the theory and implementation of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Our goal for this Web page is to eventually have hundreds of chapters relating to integrated pest management in the broad sense (not just insect pest management).

We invite colleagues world wide to contribute chapters to this textbook.  See Instructions for Contributors on this website or e-mail.us.

Content

The Editors

Edward (Ted) B. Radcliffe and William (Bill) D. Hutchison, originators of this site, are faculty members in the Department of Entomology, College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences. Spanish translations of this website are by Dr. Rafael Cancelado, an alumnus of the University of Minnesota and self-employed  crop consultant in Venezuela.
 

We use this page in teaching a University of Minnesota online course, Insect Pest Management, ENT 5211.
 

We hope that you will find this site useful and interesting.

Citation

To reference chapters posted on this WWW site use the following format: Author(s). Date (current revision). Chapter Title. In: E. B. Radcliffe and W. D. Hutchison [eds.], Radcliffe's IPM World Textbook, URL: http://ipmworld.umn.edu, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN.

Please contact us with any comments or questions
you have about this site.
Send e-mail to Ted Radcliffe
Send e-mail to Bill Hutchison

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Last modified: Friday, 26 May, 2006
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