October IPM Coalition

Yesterday we held our last IPM Coalition meeting for 2012. Eighteen coalition members attended, including representatives from Extension, health care, child care, EPA, tribes, school districts, and industry.

We had two speakers, Bill McCoy and Jerry Steckly, both from Lincoln Public Schools. They discussed the history of their district's pest management program and how they began using IPM. Then they spoke about what IPM strategies they currently have in place, such as maintaining a pest log book. They also gave some great examples of how IPM has been effective in LPS. One significant impact was the decrease in cockroaches after the kitchen floor and drains were deep cleaned.

Clyde and I also asked members to think about what topics they'd like to see for coalition meetings in 2013. One suggestion was having a discussion about how to do small heat treatments for bedbugs. We also encouraged members to attend the Urban Pest Management Conference this year in February.

LPS 4th visit

On Monday we completed our 4th visit to our LPS demonstration school. It was spring break so very quiet! After a short meeting, the head custodian led us to the kitchen and other locations listed on our recommendations sheet.

The kitchen was greatly improved from past visits. There were two "hot spot" locations where we still saw evidence of cockroaches...near the "cooking" areas and near some back wall sinks. We told the custodian to place more sticky traps in those areas, and to deep clean under appliances. He noted that the drains had been cleaned since last time, which is very important in reducing food and water sources.

Stephen Vantassel made note of some things in the courtyards (one behind the kitchen and two student courtyards) and the perimeter. The main issues in these area were drainage problems (slopes going toward the building), and holes or gaps (under eaves and in the walls) that are big enough to allow insects and mice to enter.

We also visited the home ec and boiler rooms, which still had evidence of brown recluse spiders. We advised the custodian and PMP to continue to monitor in these areas.

The custodial closets looked good...pesticide was removed or in locked cabinets and mops were hung.

Overall, the school is doing very well, and the custodian informed me the next day that he'd already put in work orders to fix some of the things we had noticed! So LPS is well on it's way to IPM implementation!

My next blog will talk about our two day film shoot at this same school. We are doing an "IPM Process" video that highlights the things we do during these demonstration visits. Dramatized by actors, this video can be distributed to Nebraska Schools and nationally to show what steps are involved in implementing an IPM program.

LPS Second Visit

On Sept 23, Clyde, Barb and I began our second visit to the Lincoln demonstration school by meeting with the staff, which included the principal, operations manager, head custodian, director of food services, and two PMPs, including the technician who services the school. We discussed that we'd be checking traps set last time and visiting vulnerable areas. We also talked about the recordkeeping process they have in place. Currently, this school keeps a pest log in the custodial office, but they are likely going to make a second set of pest sighting sheets available in the main office to simplify the pest reporting process for staff.

After the short discussion, we made our way to visit the food storage and kitchen areas, home ec, staff lounge, boiler room, and custodial closets/offices.

Food storage was good about primarily using open metal shelves! They did have a few wooden pallets and lots of cardboard boxes, but the area was clean, neat, and dry. We recommended they just discard the pallets and reduce the cardboard.

The kitchen is a pest vulnerable area, as we have seen in visits to many other schools, and we did find traps with Orientals and Germans, as well as a German cockroach hiding behind a bulletin board! We gave them similar recommendations as OPS of deep cleaning everything (behind and beneath equipment, floors, drains, etc.), caulking around the bulletin boards, and setting out more traps to continue monitoring.

The staff lounge was in overall good shape...the traps primarily had incidentals but we had found some mouse droppings under a sink last time, so encouraged them to put out snap traps.

The Home ec room looked good...sinks were clean underneath with no storage of pesticide, and stoves, sinks, etc. were clean overall.


In the boiler room, we saw two live wolf spiders...as big as half my thumb! I got this great picture of one before Clyde started telling me it would jump on me. I wasn't sure whether to believe him, but I wasn't taking any chances :-) so I moved back and let someone perform some "mechanical" IPM on the spider with his shoe! We also saw some dead Orientals on the floor, a bag with pop cans, and various areas with debris and dirt. We encouraged the school to address an area of standing water near the water softener, especially since Orientals love and thrive on lots of moisture.

We looked at several custodial closets and with the exception of some clutter/debris and some cans of pesticide that we recommended they remove, they were in good shape. Mops were hung, trash bags were changed daily, and most buckets were dry.

The LPS school, like OPS, is well on its way to implementing their IPM program. Both schools have or will be receiving recommendations after this second visit that will help guide them in the process.

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.

Turf Assessment in Lincoln

Yesterday we visited our Lincoln school again and examined the turf. Clyde and I were joined by the head school custodian, Roch Gaussoin, turf specialist at UNL, and one of the school's groundskeepers. There was a lot of white clover growth, which can be both good and bad!

Roch said that until the 1950's, clover was actually included in part of the seed mix for lawns because it helps release nitrogen. He mentioned that if the school wanted to, they could actually allow the clover to be the primary groundcover. The only concern might be potential liability issues with bees (student and staff allergic reactions)

Increasing fertility (using more fertilizers, such as one application in the fall) would greatly cut down the amount of clover. However, this would encourage grass growth and result in the need for mowing more often. The school has limited manpower to address the turf at all the Lincoln schools, so this might not be the preferable option.

Another thing of note was that mulch was compounded around the trees. The trees were planted well, at the proper depth. Roch suggested that the mulch just be spread out a bit away from the tree rather than mounded so tightly against it. This will help reduce mower hits against the tree as well.

The groundskeeper also mentioned that sports turf areas in LPS are the only places where herbicides are used because these areas have a higher priority to be maintained. He mentioned otherwise they just mow, and they don't fertilize the general turf.

Overall, we offered the school a variety of options in addressing their turf health and our recommendations take into consideration that their decisions have to be based on time and personnel.

Finally, Clyde also suggested that the sports turf groundskeeper as well as any other interested district groundskeepers attend the Green Expo in January. This is great for both pesticide applicator recertification as well as updated information about landscape and turf issues.

Big Week

Well, this is the week we start our first IPM demonstration visits to the Omaha and Lincoln public schools! Tomorrow we'll be in Omaha and Wednesday in Lincoln.

We'll be conducting a walkthrough at each school as well as providing the school administration and staff with a presentation about IPM and how the process will work over the next year. We plan to document pests and pest conducive conditions by taking photos and notes, and from these we'll be able to provide recommendations for the schools. We'll also be placing traps in conducive areas.

Stay tuned for a detailed report after the completion of this initial assessment.

Upcoming NE IPM Events

It is going to be an exciting year for Nebraska IPM! June 22, 23 and 29 we'll be conducting our first IPM assessments at the Omaha and Lincoln schools.

July 7 Mark Shour from IA state will be with us at our Nebraska IPM coalition to speak about his experiences with IPM in schools in Iowa.

The first week of August, as part of the North Central IPM Working group meeting, we'll be doing a walkthrough at a Nebraska City school.

Oct 6 Tom Green from the IPM Institute is joining our coalition meeting to talk about IPM Star Certification.

Stay tuned for more details about these important and educational IPM events!