Many homeowners want their lawns and gardens to be attractive and pest-free, but many don’t realize pesticides can be misused resulting in harm to people, pets and the environment.

Many pest management mistakes are made by homeowners because they are not knowledgeable about pest identification, life cycles and behavior.

Moreover, homeowners tend to look for “silver bullet” solutions when the best solutions usually involve a combination of activities that add up to keeping the pests at bay.

An Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach is one that considers many different methods simultaneously, providing the most effective way of suppressing pests in the lawn and garden while assuring the safety of children, adults and pets.

A pest can be anything from ants in the kitchen, to weeds in the lawn, to a fungus on a tree, to a deer in the garden.

IPM is a safe, economical and stepwise approach to pest management. It integrates knowledge of pest identity and biology with pest monitoring so that actions, if any, can be taken at just the right time.

In addition, IPM uses a combination of management tactics that are more likely to be safe and effective.

While pesticides (bug sprays, weed killers, etc.) can be used as part of an IPM program, it is a good idea to limit their use and, thereby, your exposure.

Pesticides should be used only as a last resort and carefully chosen, carefully used, carefully stored, and carefully disposed.

Resorting to pesticides without full knowledge of your target pests and or the chemical properties of the pesticide can lead to unnecessary, ineffective or downright dangerous use of chemicals.

In fact, home and garden pesticide applications account for more pesticide use on a per acre basis than agriculture.

Ask yourself: Do I really need a chemical to solve this pest problem? If so, which is the least toxic choice?

Do not be tempted to spread broad-spectrum insecticides over your lawn on a calendar basis as “insurance” against all bugs.

Broad-spectrum insecticides will kill far more beneficial insects in your lawn than the pests you are trying to keep in check. In fact, you may create more pest problems than you solve by this approach and contribute to contamination of surface water runoff and kill non-target organisms.

Target only the pest you know you have, and when you have it, that is causing actual significant damage.

Following are a few IPM tips for the garden and landscape:

- Grow pest-resistant plants, shrubs and trees. Selections should be well suited to soil and climate.

- Use selective pesticides. Insecticidal soaps are effective against aphids, mealybugs, whiteflies, scale and some other pests. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a bacterium that kills leaf-eating caterpillars and other specific insects and is sold in garden stores.

Encourage beneficial insects which kill pests by growing large, showy composite flowers on which they can land and feed and by limiting pesticide applications.

Destroy diseased plant materials and clean up plant debris at the season’s end.

To combat weeds, maintain an adequately fertilized lawn; hand-dig or spot-treat weeds.

“Growing Green” is contributed by Diane Dorn, Lehigh County Extension Office Staff, and Master Gardeners. Information: Lehigh County Extension Office, 610-391-9840; Northampton County Extension Office, 610-813-6613