The Six Steps of the IPM Process in Public and Commercial Buildings
The IPM process is mostly common sense. The challenge to making it work is using patience and skill to gradually replace the system's old attitudes and habits with that common sense. Each pest problem, great or small, usually presents the pest controller with six basic tasks:
- Understanding and Educating the Client. Most pest control in and around buildings is a service to the occupants and is performed at their request. The IPM process therefore typically begins with people rather than pests. Client relations is always a two-way street. Educating the customer about pest biology and control is essential, but it is much more effective if the pest controller first understands customer concerns as well as expectations. Education then begins by explaining whether or not these concerns are warranted and the expectations attainable. As in any service occupation, the ability to listen and communicate is an absolute necessity.
- Analyzing the Pest Problem. Despite the fact that volumes have been written about pest biology and management, it is fairly simple to figure out the identity of most structural pests and why they are present. Exactly where they are coming from can be more difficult to discover, and may require a thorough understanding of structural engineering and design.
- Taking Short-Term, Corrective Action. Although IPM emphasizes a "preventive maintenance" approach to pests, the real world often demands immediate corrective action for pre-existing problems. In many cases, the use of pesticides for this purpose is unavoidable. However, all parties must understand that each corrective action will be the least toxic of all feasible alternatives. Reluctant clients who feel more comfortable with older (but now less appropriate) technologies should be reminded that minimization of liability has become an overriding pest control imperative.
- Implementing Long-Term, Preventive Action. Ongoing, "built-in" control actions that indirectly reduce pests by minimizing their food, harborage, and access are the heart of the IPM process and a fundamental measure of its success. These actions are often technically simple sanitation or exclusion procedures that are administratively difficult to plan, coordinate, and execute. Structural pest prevention is the "applied facilities management" aspect of IPM, and requires that the pest controller have as thorough a knowledge of building operations as of pest biology. It also frequently requires the understanding and cooperation of program areas that traditionally have not interacted closely with pest management.
- Inspecting, Documenting, and Evaluating Results. Skilled inspection is the backbone of IPM. The evaluation of corrective action should strive to be as efficient as possible, with documentation no more elaborate than necessary. Even the simplest records can usually indicate whether control measures have succeeded or that a new approach is needed. However, the greatest IPM inspection challenge is to establish a routine proactive surveillance program. Tenants and building managers serve as a vast pool of "inspectors" for pest infestations, but they cannot be relied on to detect and report conditions conducive to infestation.
- Getting Back to the Client. "Closing the loop" by following up on whether client satisfaction has been achieved is the step easiest to ignore, but one of the most critical to an IPM program's continued support and viability. To put it simply, the IPM program has not been a success unless the client considers it a success.
Dr. Albert Greene
Chief, Building Services Branch
GSA, WPYA-B
7th and D Streets, SW
Washington, D.C. 20407
e-mail: albert.greene@gsa.gov
