Integrated Pest Management has become an essential part of plant protection in horticulture all over the world. The combination of beneficial organisms, selective pesticides, monitoring and other cultural management measurements makes it possible to reduce the number of chemical treatments while tolerating acceptable pest levels. The success behind this strategy is hardly based on environmental concerns, but is mainly driven by economic and practical reasons like resistance management or the use of pollinators like bumblebees or honeybees.

Recently, the extralegal requirements by some European supermarkets on the number and the amount of residues on fruit and vegetables, and the strict import rules on the used plant protection products by countries like Russia have strongly augmented the demand for IPM based pest and disease control in many horticultural crops. However, for growers, advisory people, registration officers and even chemical companies employees, things are getting more and more complicated. They do not only need to know which product they can use to control a pest or disease, but also if there are any undesirable side-effects on the used micro- and macro-organisms, and if so, how they can still implement the treatment while minimising the effects of the treatment on the biological balance between predator and prey, or parasitoid and host. This is where this website comes in to help.

IPM Impact is proud to present the most comprehensive database on side-effects of plant protection compounds and growth regulators on beneficial organisms and pollinators in the world. There are very few databases on side-effects of plant protection compounds available, and they all seem to base themselves on the same sources. The database on this website differs quite a lot in approach:

• All the results are coming from reliable sources. Most of the trials are done by IPM Impact themselves on an independent base or in cooperation with the biological and chemical industry.
• In almost all side-effect lists you can only search on the active ingredient. On this website you will find thousands of trade names of insecticides, acaricides and fungicides, linked with the correct active ingredient. For a grower or advisor it is much easier to find the desired results this way.
• Active ingredients are quite often written slightly different all over the world. Therefore the search can be done on synonyms.
• This side-effect list distinguish in toxicity of compounds and residual activity under different climatic conditions. Quite often the existing side-effect lists only refer to trials done under North-western Europe circumstances.
• If relevant, information will be given on differences between formulations, dose rates, moments of application, crops, etc.
• Special attention is given to the toxicity and residual activity according to the application techniques.
• In case of fungicides, cumulative effects are discussed.
• Toxicity alone is not the main parameter anymore. The focus is more on the predatory/prey, parasitoid/host ratio or recovery than on mortality.
• Sub-lethal effects are discussed if necessary.
• Sometimes active ingredients are only sold in mixes. If relevant, these results are also presented.
• The number of active ingredients of both chemical and biological compounds is significantly enlarged.
• The information on plant growth regulators will be largely increased in number in the near future.
• Relevant information on the effects of herbicides will be provided soon.
• In case of pollinators, essential differences between the different crops are given, e.g. nectar producing plants versus pollen producing plants etc.