Principles of Integrated Pest and Disease Management

PATH 374 is a course on integrated pest and disease management that explains how insect pests and plant diseases are monitored, assessed, and managed through coordinated, economical, and safer strategies.

Integrated pest and disease management means using a planned combination of cultural, biological, mechanical, genetic, regulatory, and chemical methods to keep pests and diseases below damaging levels.

Economic injury level is the point where pest or disease damage causes economic loss equal to the cost of control, while economic threshold is the lower action point where control should begin before that injury level is reached.

Monitoring and diagnosis are important because management decisions should be based on what pest or disease is actually present, how severe it is, and whether action is economically justified.

The main tools include host resistance, sanitation, crop rotation, ecological or cultural practices, mechanical and physical measures, biological control, surveillance, forecasting, and careful pesticide use when needed.

Pesticide safety is important because IPM aims to reduce unnecessary risk to people, animals, beneficial organisms, and the environment while still achieving effective crop protection.

They study these because biological control is a practical part of IPM, and these agents help suppress pests or diseases in ways that can reduce reliance on broad chemical control.

IPM is considered more sustainable because it emphasizes prevention, monitoring, targeted action, and the integration of multiple tactics rather than repeated routine spraying alone.