ABSTRACT
Integrated pest management (IPM) has a responsibility to man and his environment, i.e., to minimize as much as possible the introduction of hazardous chemical toxicants into the environment. The understanding of the economic threshold is basic to IPM systems. In those areas where populations have risen above economic threshold levels, chemical insecticides have and will for some time in the foreseeable future play a key role in the management of insect populations. The economic and environmental assessment of IPM programs must be included as a key component in all research and implementation stages. A research and demonstration project conducted in the Trans-Pecos of West Texas has provided some interesting opportunites for economic production of cotton. Net returns for conventional production were estimated to be $37.27 per acre while under the IPM program net returns were estimated to be $55.77, or an increase of $18.50 per acre.
