Integrated Pest Management Cycle (IPM) for A-level

Integrated pest management (IPM) aims to protect crops through keeping pests below an economically damaging level, rather than attempting total eradication. Through understanding the ecology of both crop and pest, and considering all the factors relevant to crop production, a cost-effective strategy can be designed, monitored and adapted throughout the year. Charlotte Jack and Emily Lane, final year B. Sc. Biological Sciences students at the University of Liverpool have produced this video to help students studying A-level Biology understand IPM. Working with staff at Sir John Deane's Sixth Form College, Northwich, Cheshire, UK and research staff from the Institute of Integrative Biology at the University of Liverpool as well as Oxitec Ltd, they planned, filmed and edited this short video. After describing the IPM cycle, there are two examples of the use of these concepts. The first is in the glasshouses at the University, where monitoring and biological control is used to counter red spider mite. The second describes methods being developed by Oxitec to use outdoors to control insect pests. The video shows an IPM strategy to control the olive fly (Bactrocera oleae), a major pest of world-wide olive production.