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CFC1426351 & INSURED
C F C 1 4 2 6 3 5 1 & I N S U R E D
O'Hara Landscape & Maintenance, Inc. 1001 25th Ct. West Palm Beach, FL 33407 Phone: 561-655-9011 Fax: 561-655-2229 Toll Free: 800-926-9599 |
Informationals
 O'Hara Landscape Editorials
INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT MISSION
As your lawn and ornamental management specialists, we are responsible
for the coordination of your integrated pest management (IPM) program
outdoors. This implies that we will first see to the provision of
adequate cultural controls (irrigation, nutrition, and cultivation) to
strengthen your landscaping. Then, as a last resort, we will apply
deadly force (chemical pesticides) only to those pests who would
presume to attack it.
What does this mean?
In the not too distant past, it was widely accepted that regularly scheduled general pesticide
applications, applied over virtually all plants or lawns, were the most
effective pest control for lawns and ornamental plants. Over the
decades however, this method gradually manifested catastrophic
drawbacks.
Being insufficiently biodegradable, many common pesticide
chemicals began to show up in ground water supplies, plants, animals,
and at other points along the ecological cycle. This situation wreaked
havoc upon beneficial predator insect populations, which are an
essential component of integrated pest management, and honeybees, which
are critical toward 94% of successful crop pollination. With the
decrease of natural enemies and honeybees, generations of pests
perpetuated virtually without natural controls while agricultural
production was depleted.
Further exacerbating the problem, the only survivors of
blanket pest control applications would be the most genetically
immune. Their descendants would inherit this immunity and subsequently
pass it on to the next generation, quickly creating entire populations
of improved genetically immune pests.
Armed with this information, our priorities involve the establishment of proper
cultivation (weeding, pruning, mowing, raking) and irrigation (water
delivery) so plants and lawns can make maximum use of nutrition taken
from natural (soil, rain, atmosphere) and artificial (fertilizer)
sources. Because these cultural controls are effective, few pest
problems requiring chemical treatment are found during our routine
inspections.
Nonetheless, we never shoot first and ask
questions later. For example, if numerous beneficial predator insects
are found, we hold our fire. Other mitigating factors might involve
the presence of children, nesting birds, active honeybees, aquatic
environments, or high winds.
Never forget that because plants are alive, they have health.
Our lawn and ornamental integrated pest management (IPM) program is
successful because it always prioritizes the good health of the
landscaping over the application of chemical pesticides.
© Thomas J. O'Hara, President
O'Hara Landscape & Maintenance, Inc. 1-800-926-9599 www.oharalandscape.com |