How can a farmer control pests with the least possible pesticide and still protect the crop?
Topic 5.14 Integrated Pest Management: describe integrated pest management (IPM) and explain how it combines biological, cultural, mechanical and limited chemical control.
A focused answer to APES Topic 5.14, covering integrated pest management (IPM), its combination of biological, cultural, mechanical and limited chemical controls, monitoring and economic thresholds, and its advantages over relying on pesticides, with a worked threshold example.
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What this topic is asking
The College Board (Topic 5.14) wants you to describe integrated pest management (IPM) and explain how it combines biological, cultural, mechanical and limited chemical control to manage pests with minimal pesticide.
What IPM is
The control methods
Monitoring and thresholds
IPM relies on monitoring (scouting fields to count pests) and an economic threshold: the pest level at which the cost of damage justifies treatment. Below the threshold, no pesticide is applied. This avoids the routine, calendar-based spraying that drives resistance.
Advantages and trade-offs
Why this matters
IPM is the practical answer to the problems of chemical pest control (Topic 5.6), avoiding the pesticide treadmill by combining methods. It is a core technique of sustainable agriculture (Topic 5.15) and an application of understanding pest adaptations and natural selection (Topic 2.6).
Try this
Q1. Identify the pest level at which IPM considers applying a pesticide. [1 point]
- Cue. The economic threshold (the level at which the damage justifies treatment).
Q2. Explain why IPM slows the evolution of pesticide resistance. [2 points]
- Cue. IPM uses pesticides only sparingly and as a last resort, so far fewer pests are exposed to constant chemical selection; with less selection pressure, resistant strains spread much more slowly.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of College Board exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AP 2022 (style)4 marksSection II (FRQ). (a) Describe integrated pest management (IPM). (b) Identify two control methods (other than chemical pesticides) used in IPM. (c) Explain how IPM reduces the development of pesticide resistance. (d) Describe one disadvantage of IPM compared with simply spraying pesticides.Show worked answer →
A 4-point FRQ on integrated pest management.
(a) Describe (1 point): IPM combines several control methods, biological, cultural, mechanical/physical and limited chemical, with monitoring, to control pests while minimizing pesticide use and environmental harm.
(b) Identify (1 point): any two of biological control (natural predators or parasites), crop rotation, intercropping/polyculture, mechanical removal or traps, and resistant crop varieties.
(c) Explain (1 point): because pesticides are used only sparingly and as a last resort, fewer pests are exposed to constant chemical selection, so resistant strains evolve more slowly.
(d) Describe (1 point): IPM is more knowledge-intensive, requires monitoring and planning, and may act more slowly or be more complex to manage than routine spraying.
Markers reward the multi-method definition, two valid non-chemical methods, reduced chemical selection for slower resistance, and a real disadvantage (complexity or knowledge demand).
AP 2019 (style)1 marksSection I (multiple choice). A key principle of integrated pest management is that pesticides should be: (A) applied on a fixed weekly schedule (B) used as the first and main line of defense (C) used sparingly, only when pest numbers reach a damaging threshold (D) avoided completely under all circumstances. Justify your choice.Show worked answer →
A 1-point MCQ on IPM. The answer is (C).
IPM uses pesticides sparingly and only when monitoring shows pest numbers have reached an economic threshold that justifies treatment, after relying first on biological, cultural and mechanical controls. (A) and (B) describe routine pesticide reliance, the opposite of IPM; (D) is too absolute, IPM permits limited, targeted chemical use as a last resort. The trap is the all-or-nothing options; IPM is limited, threshold-based use.
Related dot points
- Topic 5.6 Pest Control Methods: compare chemical and biological pest control and explain the pesticide treadmill and the evolution of pesticide resistance.
A focused answer to APES Topic 5.6, covering chemical pesticides, their benefits and costs, biological control, the pesticide treadmill, pesticide resistance through natural selection, and broad-spectrum versus narrow-spectrum pesticides, with a worked resistance calculation.
- Topic 5.15 Sustainable Agriculture: describe sustainable farming practices that conserve soil and water and maintain long-term productivity.
A focused answer to APES Topic 5.15, covering sustainable agriculture practices (crop rotation, contour ploughing, terracing, no-till, cover crops, strip cropping, agroforestry, rotational grazing) and how each conserves soil and water and maintains productivity, with a worked erosion-reduction calculation.
- Topic 5.3 The Green Revolution: describe the methods and benefits of the Green Revolution and explain its environmental costs.
A focused answer to APES Topic 5.3, covering the Green Revolution, high-yield crop varieties, fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation and mechanisation, its benefits for food supply, and its environmental costs, with a worked yield-increase calculation.
- Topic 5.4 The Impact of Agricultural Practices: explain how tillage, fertilizer use, overgrazing and other farming practices degrade soil and water.
A focused answer to APES Topic 5.4, covering how tillage, fertilizer use, overgrazing, and confined animal feeding degrade soil and water through erosion, nutrient runoff, salinisation, desertification and waste, with a worked nutrient-loading calculation.
- Topic 2.6 Adaptations: explain how natural selection produces adaptations and how environmental change shifts which traits are favored over time.
A focused answer to APES Topic 2.6, covering adaptations, natural selection, the role of genetic variation, structural, physiological and behavioral adaptations, specialists and generalists, and how environmental change drives evolution, with a worked selection question.
Sources & how we know this
- AP Environmental Science Course and Exam Description — College Board (2020)