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This site is a resource for pests in and around the home intended to answer homeowner pest control questions, help you prevent and/or manage common pests, recognize human behaviors that cause pest problems, and to know when to call a professional. The content on this website is provided by a virtual community of Extension professionals from across the country. The goal of Extension programs across the U.S. is to provide evidence-based information and recommendations.
See related resource: How to Submit an Insect Sample for Identification

IPM is not a single pest control method but, rather, a series of pest management evaluations, decisions, and controls.

Comprehensive site why and how aquatic plants are managed in Florida waters. These five sections (why manage plants; overview of Florida waters, control methods, developing management plans, and research and outreach) will guide you through the many factors considered by Fish and Wildlife Conservation commission (FWC) biologists when developing aquatic plant management plans for Florida waters. Our priority is to manage invasive plants while also conserving and enhancing our unique aquatic habitats and wildlife communities.

Python Patrol is a no-cost training program that aims to create a network of trained individuals throughout south Florida who know how to identify Burmese pythons, report sightings, and in some cases, capture and humanely kill the snakes. Python Patrol training is offered throughout south and southwest Florida.

See also: Weeds - Quackgrass for more species resources

See also: For Farmers for more resources

Biocontrol is an important management tool that utilizes one species (a biocontrol agent) to control another (a target host) and can be an effective approach for controlling populations of invasive species across broad spatial scales. There are growing concerns that mismatches between how biocontrol agents and their hosts respond to climate change could alter the efficacy of current and future biocontrol programs.
See also: Environmental Conversation Education Materials for additional educational materials (2011 to present)

The four Regional Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Centers serve as a hub for multi-state partnerships and communication networks, linking researchers, growers, extension educators, commodity organizations, environmental groups, pest control professionals, government agencies and others. The regions include: Northern IPM Center, Southern IPM Center, North Central IPM Center, and the Western IPM Center.

Funded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture to promote IPM, the Centers also coordinate, enhance, and facilitate the flow of resources and information in integrated pest management on a regional basis, including grants management, data acquisition and sharing, infrastructure development, and the documentation needed to provide accountability for resources used. Each regional center focuses on national efforts while maintaining the regional nature required for effective IPM programs.

Provides a searchable database for various key contacts, coordinators and experts.

Both scientists and regulators have had a lot to say about the growing problem of herbicide resistance and how weed management techniques need to change in response. But there have been few organized opportunities for farmers to make their voices heard and to share their experiences in managing herbicide-resistant weeds.

The Aquatic Invasive Species Commission and key partners received input from and engaged in dialogue with key stakeholders, federal and state decision makers, and leading experts. Recommendations focus on modernizing marine fisheries laws, making strategic investments, and improving collaboration among federal, state, local, and tribal agencies. The purpose of this collaborative process was intended to assess the current threat from aquatic invasive species (AIS), explore gaps in public policy and funding, and offer recommendations for how AIS can be addressed more effectively at the federal, state, tribal and regional levels.
See also: The new report Report and Recommendations: Improving the Prevention, Eradication, Control and Mitigation of Aquatic Invasive Species (Feb 2023) [PDF, 908 KB]

The $900,000 grant will help Virginia Tech researchers see if the spotted lanternfly can help spread a fungus that kills the tree-of-heaven. The goal of the grant is to develop a native fungus as a biocontrol for the tree-of-heaven. Researchers are investigating whether the spotted lanternfly could help transmit the fungus from tree to tree, reducing the need for human intervention.

The Lionfish Challenge 2022, the seventh annual, is a summer-long tournament that rewards divers for their lionfish harvests. The tournament boasted a total of 707 registered participants, the most in the program’s history. 196 divers conducted a total of 676 trips throughout the state during the 3-month tournament and brought in a whopping 25,299 lionfish.

Russian knapweed (Rhaponticum repens) is a nonnative weed in the western United States. It was introduced in the late 1800’s and is now invading and degrading cropland, rangeland, riparian areas, and roadsides. This deep-rooted perennial is persistent and difficult and expensive to control by conventional means, is toxic to horses and outcompetes native vegetation by producing chemicals that inhibit plant growth. Russian knapweed is listed by the State of Colorado as a noxious weed, to be suppressed, contained, or locally extirpated.

The Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) offers biocontrol agents to help suppress weeds and insect pests. When two gall-forming agents were developed and tested by CABI, and became available for use against Russian knapweed, the CDA was prepared to use them against the more than 50,000 hectares of the weed that currently infests Colorado.

The plot could have come from Hollywood — an insidious alien invader threatens to overrun the land, but intrepid scientists discover a secret weapon in the far-off, exotic land of Nepal and bring the pestilence to heel. But this is not fiction; it's true. The air potato plant (Dioscorea bulbifera) is an exotic vine from Asia that was introduced to Florida about 115 years ago to make medicine. After escaping from the lab, it multiplied and smothered native plant communities in all of Florida's 67 counties. It spread beyond to large swaths of land in the southeastern United States. All attempts to manage the air potato – mechanical, chemical, or physically gathering the bulbils — were unsuccessful; they were either too labor intensive and costly or caused collateral damage to native and endangered species. According to Min Rayamajhi, a plant pathologist at the Agricultural Research Service's (ARS) Invasive Plant Research Laboratory (IPRL) in Fort Lauderdale, FL, the vines return every season, repeating the growth cycle and expanding the invasion at a rate of about 6 inches per day. Rayamajhi and retired ARS scientist Bob Pemberton traveled to Nepal and accidentally discovered the air potato beetle.

Biologists from the U.S. Geological Survey are racing the clock to pull four species of native Hawaiian Honeycreeper forest birds back from the brink of extinction. Factors such as habitat loss, invasive species, and non-native predators have been fueling the birds' decline for centuries. However, introduced diseases, particularly avian malaria spread through mosquitos, which are not native to the Hawaiian Islands, coupled with climate change, are the greatest threat facing Hawaiian forest birds today. 

"As the climate warms and more mosquitoes move into the once malaria-free regions of the mountains, healthy birds are running out of places to escape the cycle of infection," said Eben Paxton, a research ecologist with the USGS Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center (PIERC) in Hawai'i. Now, PIERC biologists are working with a range of partners, including other Interior Department bureaus and the Birds Not Mosquitos Coalition, to intercept the disease cycle using a novel conservation tool.

See also: Biocontrol Factsheets for more information on biocontrol agents