Pest management vs. pest control
Pest management is a relatively
new term that aims to recognize that our goal
should be to reduce, or manage,
pest numbers below some damage threshold. Pest
management is mainly practiced in agriculture
and home gardening where one of the goals is to
maintain a balance of natural predators.
Sometimes you'll see the term integrated
pest management used.
On the other hand the practice of pest
control seeks to eliminate
(exterminate) any potential pest. For example,
most people would not be satisfied with just
reducing the number of carpenter ants in the
walls of their home but might be ok with only
reducing, or managing,
the number of aphids in their garden to a level
that does not affect production.
