Integrated Pest Management: Limitations

Limitations, as well as disadvantages, of IPM can include:
• A misunderstanding, or lack of knowledge, of the concept and how it needs to be actively applied and managed.
• The time and related costs needed for planning and implementing the system, including what to include, i.e. the specific pests, diseases, weeds, and gaining agreement from stakeholders on what is an acceptable or even appropriate threshold for each organism.
• There can still be a primary, even sub-conscious, focus or bias on pesticide control, treating other potential control methods more as supporting controls. The outcome will often still see a reduction in pesticide use, however, reductions could have been greater if greater emphasis and action had been applied to other control methods.
• The focus is on the undesirable organism (pest, disease, weed), which is a reductionist approach but may be effective at controlling single organisms. However, a broader holistic and systematic approach to considering plant health and managing turfgrass to minimise plant stress, increasing resilience and becoming less susceptible to disease attack, pest damage or weed competition will provide a more effective long-term solution.
• The use of similar pesticides contributes to the development of resistance to the pesticides in pests. It is essential to vary the mode of action, active ingredient and how they are used to reduce the extent of any build-up of pesticide resistance.
• It is often seen as end point rather than starting point in undesirable organism control and links back to the holistic approach above.
• The costs of pesticides, especially fungicides, can be very expensive, so unless a significant reduction in the need for pesticides is achieved the IPM approach that is applied in practice on a site or for a pitch would be questionable regards its effectiveness.
• Biological controls can be limited in when they can be applied, being influenced by the life cycle of the control organism and that which is to be controlled, as well as environmental requirements (e.g. minimum temperature, moisture, light/shade, wind, etc.). Biological controls can also be very expensive as well as variable in their effectiveness due to significant influence of environmental conditions.
• An organisation may use the IPM concept as a way of green-washing their working practices, with little genuine desire to invest in more sustainable practices which might be less efficient than spraying, but might be more effective for the long term reduction in undesirable organism activity and attacks, primarily because their focus is on shorter term profit drivers.