The goal of pest management is the regulation of damage caused by pests, taking into account both costs and benefits of control procedures. Pest management must be compatible with current production practices and short-term profitability, but it strives to develop strategies which lead to long-term, stable and cost-effective management programs. The potential benefits include reduced chances of pest resurgence, slower development of resistance to pesticides, lower pesticide application costs, and reduced environmental contamination. The costs include management time, monitoring, and possibly more expensive control procedures.
To implement pest management practices in an orchard system:
• become familiar with insect biology and pest management principles,
• plan a seasonal and long-term strategy,
• monitor pest populations and use control procedures based on economic injury levels, and
• keep records and use them to refine the following season’s strategy.
EPA has required states to develop and implement pesticide management strategies that would establish processes for responding to pesticide detections in the water. WSDA has developed a pesticide assessment methodology consisting of:
The first measure will be to identify those pesticides that have a potential to occur in surface or ground water at concentrations approaching or exceeding a reference point. These pesticides are defined as a "Pesticide of Interest".The second measure will be the quantification of Washington State’s efforts to manage pesticides that have been identified as posing a risk of contamination. The state evaluation will determine whether pesticides of interest are likely to approach or exceed a human health or ecological reference point within localized areas, thus becoming a "Pesticide of Concern" and in need of management measures.