Pest management in the landscape/lawn maintenance industry: a factor analysis

Lawn care and landscape maintenance (LCLM) firms in the Atlanta metro area were surveyed to determine industry pest management practices. Factor analysis is used to determine pest management systems in the LCLM industry. Primary factors include preventive applications, chemical intensive management, growth regulators and traps, beneficial insects, and bio-intensive management. Independently owned and small firms tend to have lower degrees of adoption of integrated pest management (IPM) factors than corporate and large firms. Comparison of pest management factors in the LCLM industry with those in agriculture suggest that similar IPM systems exist in both industries