Monitoring

Pest inspectors should monitor for conditions that favor pest outbreaks, including:

Insect pests are usually thought of in terms of numbers or population size. Monitoring usually follows inspection and measures or gauges the size of the pest population. However, the size of the population alone does not mean much unless it is in some context. Population estimates are given relative to some constant, such as space or time. For example, how many insects are in a lawn is usually measured as the number of insects found per square foot. In horticulture and agriculture, it is the number of insects per plant, per leaf, or per acre. Sometimes populations are estimated as the number collected per time unit (hour, day, or week). Still other populations are measured as the number of insects per sweep of a net or per shovel of soil. This will be covered in greater detail later, but for now it is sufficient to understand that pest managers must estimate pest population size as a function of some standard parameter.

Monitoring may consist of pest observations made by the pest manager or by other people. For example, in a school, custodians, teachers, and staff members should be encouraged to regularly record pest sightings in a log so this information can be communicated to the pest manager. The same is true in homes, factories, or wherever people spend time. Asking those who spend time in the building what they have seen is basic monitoring.

Inspection Process

The process for inspecting for pests requires that a pest manager;

1. know the pest
2. identify pest signs
3. recognize the conditions that favor the pest
4. utilize proper inspection tools and techniques

Many common pests are not active during the daytime or when people are present to actually see them. Other pests hide either underground or in places where they are difficult to see. Such pests often build up very high populations without being discovered. By the time they are noticed, their populations are sometimes so high and so entrenched that controlling them becomes very difficult. One principle of integrated pest management is devising a way to monitor so that if a pest invades, it can be discovered and eliminated quickly - well before it has time to reproduce and build up high populations.