Begone from me, O crooked-lips! Integrated Pest Management in ancient Egypt

The core tenet of modern Integrated Pest Management (IPM) advocates a combination of methods to suppress and live with pest populations rather than simply obliterating them via environmentally damaging pesticides. Ecologists often trace the roots of the modern IPM movement to the late nineteenth century when farmers and others drew on common knowledge about insect biology to devise "multitactical strategies” by which to control them (Kogan 1998: 244), but archaeological evidence suggests that this approach is much more ancient (Panagiotakopulu et al. 1995).