What Do They Know and What Do They DO? A National Evaluation of Landscape Integrated Pest Management Knowledge and Use in the United States

Abstract

Abstract Individual residents in the United States increasingly practice do-it-yourself pest management in their lawns and gardens. This self-managed pest control is frequently characterized by unnecessary and sometimes indiscriminate applications of pesticide that are often ineffective and environmentally damaging. Given residential consumers account for most of the world’s pesticide expenditures, the need to increase adoption of IPM best practices is critical. Through its education and technical training programming, we argue that Cooperative Extension is uniquely positioned to nudge residential DIY pest management away from an exclusive reliance on pesticide application and towards IPM best practices. To assess how best to encourage an increase in IPM adoption, we examined the relationship between an individual user’s knowledge of IPM practices and adoption of IPM behavior. Survey results from individual residents responsible for their lawn and garden management indicate that where there is high knowledge of IPM best practices, there appears to be a strong likelihood of behavior adoption. Results also show, however, that a significant number of respondents have little to no knowledge of IPM. To address this gap, we argue for the need to increase IPM-related education and provide recommendations for future research.