The Western Integrated Pest Management Center

Promoting smart, safe and sustainable pest management to protect the American West.

Farmers walking through a blooming field.

Pests are thieves. Integrated pest management is pest-theft prevention.

When insects, diseases, weeds and other pests destroy crops, they steal from farmers and families alike. Pest damage raises costs and makes food less available. It’s theft, plain and simple, and it costs Americans billions every year.

Pests steal from us in other ways, too. Pest-triggered illness and allergies cause kids to miss school and parents to miss work. They cause expensive and lifelong health issues. They destroy valuable infrastructure we rely on and threaten natural landscapes we love.

At the Western IPM Center, we promote smarter and safer ways to control pests and give pest managers better options than ever before. Prevention and avoidance tactics reduce pest numbers, allowing growers to choose from – and combine – the best blend of mechanical, biological and chemical controls for their specific situation.

IPM outsmarts pests and keeps their thieving to a minimum.

Recent IPM Research and Adoption

Vishal Monga stands in a chickpea field in Montana with a cloth bag and pruners.

Research Aims to Improve Control of Ascochyta Blight in Chickpea

Montana chickpea growers – who produce a third of the U.S. chickpea crop – face a serious foliar crop disease known as Ascochyta blight. It’s caused by a poorly understood pathogen that requires growers to make multiple fungicide applications each season. It’s a recipe for fungicide resistance development. What growers need to know is what conditions lead to spore dispersal, when growers should make the first fungicide application, and how often they will need to make repeated applications of different fungicides to effectively manage the disease.
Twelve 5-gallon buckets, half-buried in mud, sit in a mudflat.

Washington Scientists Work to Protect Oysters from Burrowing Shrimp

For the past century, a silent war has waged in the tidal mudflats of Washington’s Willapa Bay. The combatants: native burrowing shrimp versus farmed Pacific oysters. Right now, the shrimp have the upper hand, but the oysters’ allies have been testing new weapons, hoping to turn the tide. One of those weapons? Sodium bicarbonate – the baking soda sitting on an upper shelf in many kitchen cupboards.
A flock of sheep, some looking directly at the camera, on hills covered in dry grass.

Research Examines Barriers to Grazing for National Forest Management

Targeted grazing – using livestock to intentionally manage vegetation – can excel at treating large patches of edible invasive plants and can also create fuel breaks to reduce wildfire risk. So why don’t U.S. Forest Service staff use it more often to manage national forests? That’s the question Briana Swette, a postdoctoral fellow working with Dr. Kelly Hopping at Boise State University, wanted to answer.
Tall oatgrass in a valley in front of mountains.

Find Pest Management Strategic Plans, Crop Profiles, information on prior grants, and the Western IPM Center’s comments on regulatory actions on the IPM Data page. 

Grants

Projects

About Us