- It is a holistic approach to pest management involving biological control
- Pest and crops are considered as part of an ecological system
- The goal is to reduce the amount of pest population but not eliminate it
- This can be accomplished by increasing it's native predators
- crop rotation is a good way to disrupt a pest
- using pest resistant crop varieties
- physical ways like using vacuums and spraying the plants with hot water can be used to reduce the pest
- narrow spectrum pesticides are only used when crop loss is greater than the cost of spraying them
- advantages of IPM is the reduction of environmental and health problems
- the disadvantages are that is can cost a lot and not be immediately effective