Steve Jones of the London Golf Club i l lustrates how he believes Integrated Pest Management can be effect ive, viable and successful within a Golf Course Landscape

In recent years the Golfing World has demanded aesthetically pleasing, pest free Golf Courses expecting increased quality of turf. During this period thoughts of how we affect our environment with the use of chemicals and materials has increased dramatically. Therefore Course Managers and Superintendents have adapted maintenance approaches to include options for pest management other than the over use of pesticides. The Golfing World has created a need for Integrated Pest Management. I believe Integrated Pest Management to be an ecologically based system that uses all available methods to keep pests from reaching damaging levels while minimising the effects on humans, the environment and turf. To implement a programme of this kind successfully, 'Knowledge' must be used extensively within the specific landscape. Knowledge of the desired and undesirable species, turf diseases, pest lifecycles as well as deciding which level of these pests and diseases are acceptable. Frequent monitoring of turf for pest activity and therefore early detection can lead to the more efficient use and effectiveness of pesticides. Monitoring should be logged to build up a historical account of incurred damage and pest populations. This Knowledge can be disseminated to software programmes The Genetic Approach has been