Week of IPM in Schools in-services

With school about to go back in session, the Omaha and Lincoln Public schools held in-service training for their custodial and food service staff this week and we were invited to speak. On Monday, Clyde, Stephen Vantassel, Barb Ogg, and I spoke at the LPS custodial in-service with about 300 people in attendance. We gave them information about general IPM and the demonstration project going on in the district,as well as presentations on specific pests--flies, rodents, and cockroaches. We also got questions on ants and head lice!

On Wednesday we met at a school in Omaha to train about 100 food service managers. In addition to doing the IPM, roach, and rodent presentations again, we did a talk focused on head lice and bed bugs. Although these wouldn't be probable pests in a kitchen setting, we discussed them at the request of the school. We certainly had their rapt attention, but also saw many shivers and scratching heads during the talk :-)

Finally, today I did a 45 minute presentation on IPM for around 325 LPS food service staff.

We hope that through these in-services and demonstration projects we are doing in the districts that Lincoln and Omaha Public Schools will embrace IPM and encourage its use in all their schools. Cooperation between the pest management company and the school is also of great importance in order to make a good IPM program work. We have emphasized both in the in-services and the visits that a good recordkeeping practice should be put in place to keep the PMP and the school informed of pest sightings and what IPM methods are being used to control pest problems.

We look forward to moving the schools in the direction of IPM with a goal of district adoption.

Pesticide Education and IPM at Nebraska City

Last week the Pesticide Education Office here at UNL hosted the North Central Region Pesticide Education and Certification Workshop (NCRPECW) at the Lied Lodge in beautiful Nebraska City, home of Arbor Day. We had great presentations about stormwater runoff, phosphine, atrazine and keeping pesticides off nontarget sites, NPDES, online Pesticide Safety Education Program training, social media, Camtasia, Sensitive crop locator, IPM in Iowa schools, and many other relevant and interesting topics to North Central Region university extension and state lead agency colleagues.

On Wednesday we did a tour of the Arbor Day Farm and Kimmel Orchard, where we saw a variety of Nebraska alternative agriculture such as hazelnuts, woody florals, grapes, peaches, and apples. Some also visited the Whiskey Run Creek winery where there is an old cave that has been refurbished from the days of prohibition!

We received many compliments about the location, the food, and the conference and we thank everyone for coming!

After the NCRPECW, Clyde and I remained at the Lied Lodge and attended the annual North Central Region IPM Working group meeting, which included a walkthrough of NE City schools, with whom we may do a future demonstration project.

Overall a very productive and informative week!