Integrated suppression of synanthropic cockroaches.

Urbanization is a product of human population growth and industrialization. In industrialized as well as developing countries, urbanization has moved humans away from many arthropod pests, but into intimate associations with others. Since the introduction of synthetic organic insecticides, urban dwellers have fought pests almost exclusively with repeated applications of chemicals. In agriculture, such unilateral reliance on residual pesticides has been heavily and effectively criticized, resulting in a gradual shift since the 1950s to Integrated Pest Management (IPM), "a pest population management system that utilizes all suitable techniques in a compatible manner to reduce pest populations and maintain them at levels below those causing economic injury" (153). Sawyer & Casagrande (139) concluded that the urban pest management process has failed to develop an integrated approach to managing various pests. Rather, they argue, urban (not "integrated") pest management has addressed, in a fragmented manner, single pest types with few management options, usually in isolation from other components of the urban ecosystem. True integration, according to this view, would set the urban ecosystem as the management unit, and design and implementation components would include target pests and natural enemies in the household and structural habitat, on ornamental and shade plants, in private and public housing, parks, etc, The disciplines of entomology, horticulture, plant pathology, soil and environmental science, the social sciences, and governmental agencies would all be elements of this system. In this review, we de-emphasize this conceptual approach and, rather, employ an empirical operational approach that stresses the importance of