. Pests are organisms that damage or interfere with desirable plants in our fields and orchards, landscapes, or wildlands, or damage homes or other structures. Pests also include organisms that impact human or animal health. Pests may transmit disease or may be just a nuisance. A pest can be a plant (weed), vertebrate (bird, rodent, or other mammal), invertebrate (insect, tick, mite, or snail), nematode, pathogen (bacteria, virus, or fungus) that causes disease, or other unwanted organism that may harm water quality, animal life, or other parts of the ecosystem. Pesticides supports the implementation of an Ecological Pest Management (EPM) or strongly defined Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program in the indoor environment, and Organic Land Care (OLC) practices in the outdoor environment.Because the term IPM has been coopted by the chemical industry to mean virtually anything a practitioner wants it to mean, Beyond Pesticides has embraced the phrase “Ecological Pest Management." Ecological Pest Management better represents the focus practitioners need to have –emphasizing the broader ecology of pest management and avoiding toxic chemicals unless there are no alternatives. Some, but certainly not all IPM progr, Preventive measures must be incorporated into the existing structures and designs for new structures. Prevention is and should be the primary means of pest management in an EPM program. Any pests can look alike, but may have different ecologies that necessitate different management methods. It’s important to make sure pest managers correctly identify insects and other problem pests.