The infrastructure that will support pest management as it moves along the IPM continuum is built with up-to-date information. Needed data include the costs and risks of pesticide use and reliance, as well as a wide spectrum of knowledge about biointensive IPM approaches to specific pest-management problems.

Perhaps the best vehicle for speeding consumers, companies and governments on their journeys through this continuum exists in cyberspace: the Internet.

To date, dozens of sites devoted to pests, pesticides and pest-management strategies have hatched on the World Wide Web (WWW), providing information on subjects ranging from the life cycle of the Gypsy Moth to pesticide resistance to an interactive identification key of adult insects.

Pest Management at the Crossroads, the new book from Consumers Union, references several of these sites in its pages, providing -- for the first time -- a directory of computer databases devoted to Integrated Pest Management. A sampling of these sites, with their WWW addresses, appears below:

• The National Integrated Pest Management Initiative
  
  • National IPM Network National Server
  • Web Site location -- http://ipmwww.ncsu.edu/nipmn/states/National.html
  • A partnership of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, land-grant universities and producers, this site provides information on IPM, the status of IPM implementation and the benefits of IPM adoption.
  • Biological Control Virtual Information Center
  • Web Site location -- http://ipmwww.ncsu.edu/biocontrol/biocontrol.html
  • Links to information on worldwide biological-control organizations, databases and web sites.

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service
  • USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
    
  • Web Site Location -- http://www.usda.gov/nass/pubs/pubs.htm
    
  • Offers a publication search -- by title, subject or keyword -- on agricultural statistics, including chemical usage.

• The National Biological Impact Assessment Program
  • Information Systems for Biotechnology
  • Web Site Locations -- http://www.nbiap.vt.edu/
  • Supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech). Provides information on U.S. biotechnology centers, product deregulation status and documents from USDA, the EPA and other federal agencies.

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture ARS Systems Research Laboratory
  • The Pesticide Properties Database (PPD)
    
  • Web Site Location -- http://www.arsusda.gov/ppdb2.html
    
  • Provides a list of the pesticide properties most important for predicting the potentials of pesticides to move into ground and surface waters under a range of weather and soil conditions.

• Cornell University/Cornell Cooperative Extension and the N.Y.S. Department of Agriculture and Markets
  • New York State Integrated Pest Management Program
  • Web Site Location -- http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ipmnet/ny
  • Contains the New York State IPM program annual report for 1996, as well as links to other Integrated Pest Management sites.

• Iowa State University/The Leopold Center
  • Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
  • Web Site Location -- http://www.ag.iastate.edu/centers/leopold/Leopold.html
  • The center works to identify and reduce negative impacts of agriculture on natural resources and rural communities, and develops profitable farming systems that conserve natural resources. Research programs include Weed Management and Agroecology.

• The American Crop Protection Association
  • American Crop Protection Association
  • Web Site Location -- http://www.acpa.org/
  • Information available on endocrine disruption, including carcinogens and anticarcinogens in the human diet, breast cancer, and the suspected causes of a purported decline in male fertility.

• The University of Florida
  • University of Florida Book of Insect Records
  • Web Site Location -- http://gnv.ifas.ufl.edu/~tjw/Recbk.htm#preface
  • A book that names insect champions and documents their achievements. Each chapter deals with a different category of record, such as "Resistant to Most Insecticides."

• Pesticide Action Network North America
  • Pesticide Action Network North America PANNA
  • Web Site Location -- http://www.panna.org/panna/
  • PANNA is a nonprofit, citizen-based NGO that advocates adoption of ecologically sound practices in place of pesticide use. Includes links to news updates and PANNA’s Children and Pesticides Page.

• TreeBASE: A Pilot Project Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Harvard University Herbaria and the University of California, Davis
  • TreeBASE: A Database of Phylogenetic Knowledge
  • Web Site Location -- http://www.herbaria.harvard.edu/treebase/
  • Stores published phylogenetic trees and data matrices. Also includes bibliographic information on phylogenetic studies and details on taxa, characters, algorithms used and analyses performed.

• Department of Defense
  • Department of Defense -- Pest Management Information System
  • Web Site Location -- http://www.dtic.mil:80/
    
  • Stores and manages information about pest-management plans at military installations.