Swarthmore College
OP-9: Integrated Pest Management

1. Action thresholds are set by discussions between Director of Grounds and Arboretum Director. High visibility areas around main academic buildings are held to a higher standard than more remote outlying areas. These areas are monitored more frequently. 2.Monitoring is performed monthly on a rotating basis in most high priority areas and less often in lower priority areas. Our goal is to increase the frequency. Staff are always looking during normal gardening activities. We also use phenological and growing degree day information gathered from years of record keeping to help pinpoint pest life cycles. It is very important to know the difference between a pest and a beneficial. 3. We first try to use best cultural practices to encourage healthy pest resistant plants. Proper selection, siting, planting, and maintenance can prevent many problems or reduce their impact. 4.Monitoring and understanding the life cycle of a pest, can help us chose the control method with the least environmental impact. Mechanical, biological, or environmentally sensitive pesticides can usually be used if a problem is caught early.