By using IPM, the pesticides we still have will be used less frequently, which gives pests fewer opportunities to develop resistance. It is a decision making process whereby growers select from a variety of tactics to keep pests below an economically damaging level, while minimizing environmental impact. This integration of tactics can be used to manage all categories of pests including insects, mites, weeds, diseases, nematodes and vertebrate animals. The essential ingredients of IPM are field monitoring or scouting, pest identification, and identifying and encouraging a pest's natural enemies.
Growers use information gathered from scouting to select and schedule appropriate control tactics.
In most field situations, this means observing and sampling at several sites and recording the data. This field record usually includes a map showing site location and sampling results. The grower now has a record of pest and natural enemy conditions at a particular point in time, a snapshot, which can be compared to previous and subsequent data. This forms the basis for pest management decisions. Careful observation of diseases, insect pests, and predators is what IPM is all about.