Child Care IPM

Yesterday Clyde, Barb and I attended the Nebraska Child Care Directors meeting and presented about IPM, cockroaches, mice, bed bugs, and head lice to about 20 child care directors.

There has been a recent trend toward establishing IPM in Child Care Centers, which share some commonalities with schools (many have kitchens, storage areas, etc.) as well as differences (most dealing with younger children that crawl on the floor and are in closer contact with the environment around them). We emphasized many of the same IPM concepts to control pests, such as good sanitation, reducing clutter, sealing cracks and crevices, using non-toxic or lower toxic methods such as trapping, and habitat modification. There were many questions, especially concerns about head lice and bed bugs.

In October we will be doing a similar presentation to child care providers through the Lancaster Country Health Department and it is our hope that we may be able to conduct IPM pilots in interested day cares as we have done in schools. Stay tuned for more on this in the near future!