Pest & Disease

Got Slugs? Check out our Slug IPM guide.

Here at SBG, we are dedicated to idea that not all pests need to be managed. Nature is pretty good at balancing herself out if given the time to do so. Some loss is acceptable and part of the process.

The panels to the right show aphid farms all over our apple trees. Upon looking closer I found little clusters of yellow eggs, then a few weeks later nearly every ant farm had a lady bug larva feasting in it. The problem was gone by summer.

However, there comes a time when a particular animal or disease threatens our ability to get any harvest from our efforts and we must needs some control measures to make our effort worthwhile. (I’m looking at you slugs.)To that end, we employ IPM, Integrated Pest Management, to ensure effective, species specific control measures with the least risk to us and the environment.

What is IPM? Integrated Pest Management is a process of studying the animal or disease in question to understand its life cycle, habits, place in the ecology, strengths, and vulnerabilities. This information is then used to create precision plan to control the pest’s effect on a crop, by using physical, cultural, biological and chemical control methods. The goal is hyper-specific control measures with the least amount of collateral damage to the local ecology.