Author Archives: Debra E. Marvin

About Debra E. Marvin

Community IPM Program Assistant for Schools, Daycare and Horticulture. New York State Integrated Pest Management Program, Cornell University, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, 630 W. North Street, Geneva, NY 14456 Email: dem35@cornell.edu

Pest Prevention by Design?

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Another great EPA webinar is coming up next week. Pest Prevention by Design helps school administrators, engineers, and ‘green’ builders understand how to design pests out of buildings rather than be in a battle to control them after they’ve entered. 2000px-Environmental_Protection_Agency_logo.svg

On Tuesday, February 23, 2016 at 2:00pm, you can be part of a live webinar (online workshop) simply by registering. From your desk, laptop or tablet, you can watch, listen and interact as desired while two pest exclusion experts share their knowledge. If you’ve never used Adobe Connect, get a quick overview at: http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect.htm

For example, where a school may traditionally address a rat infestation with rat poison, the guidelines would recommend sealing the gap in the door frame that let the animals enter in the first place, putting a better lid on the dumpster out back, or removing the English ivy from the landscaping (a preferred rodent habitat). By following these recommendations, we can keep pests out, thereby improving indoor air quality and saving money over the life of the building.DSC01130-B

Join us to learn how you can better incorporate pest prevention in your school district’s Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program.

Featured presenters will be:

Chris Geiger, Ph.D., IPM Program Manager, City of San Francisco

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Robert Corrigan, Ph.D., Rodent IPM Specialist, RMC Pest Management Consulting

Robert M. Corrigan in downtown Manhattan. (Photo: Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times)

Robert M. Corrigan in downtown Manhattan. (Photo: Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times)

Space is limited to the first 1,000 to attend, and that number is not unexpected. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with information on how to join the webinar.

REGISTER NOW!

Join the EPA’s School IPM Listserv

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Stay informed of the EPA’s latest news and be part of our nationwide community.

2000px-Environmental_Protection_Agency_logo.svgIPM is smart, sensible, sustainable approach to managing pests that emphasizes pest prevention and the appropriate use of pesticides.

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Stay in touch–at your convenience

The Purpose of EPA’s School IPM Listserv?

To share information on school IPM with a broad cross-section of school administrators, business officials, facility managers, nurses, students, parents, university extension, and others with interest in pest management and healthy school environments. We will highlight common sense strategies to reduce pests and unnecessary exposure to pesticides in schools. Subscribers will learn about the work of EPA’s Center of Expertise for School IPM and the resources it makes available as well as significant EPA Regional activities.

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The latest on pest management for buildings and grounds

You’ll be aware of upcoming webinars, news from EPA, the Center of Expertise for School IPM, and The IPM Institute. Join the conversation or quietly stay on top of new research, new concerns and upcoming conferences and workshops.

 

 

 

Leaders in the field of School IPM put their collective heads together on the EPA’s School IPM Listserv . Join us!

Take Advantage of Training Webinars

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WEBINARS have become a new, and favored, way of attending workshops and seminars–from your desk chair. For those of us who (unfortunately) spend a good part of our work day at a desk, it has been an easy transition.

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The EPA, many universities, and large funded research groups like the Northeast IPM Center offer excellent online free webinars ( workshops, presentations, seminars–call them what you’d like).  We watched an excellent presentation on bedbugs last fall that was ‘attended’ online by hundreds of people around the country.  Often, these presentations are archived as a research for new viewers.

While some employees in a school district or BOCES have the option to watch online, others do not. We’d like to see this valuable resource become a normal part of training for custodians and groundskeepers; many other presentations are suitable for all staff.  The investment of a half hour online training is invaluable. Imagine if that same employee had to take the day away to drive to a seminar and sit to learn the same information. Okay- so you’d all miss the coffee and donuts, but not the early morning drive. Especially at this time of year!

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They may never replace the experience of direct interaction, but they can’t be beat for convenience.

We, at the NYSIPM program and especially those of us working on school and childcare seek to make you aware of online, free workshops. Follow us at https://twitter.com/NY_School_IPM @NY_School_IPM    IPM for Schools and Childcare, or subscribe to emailed notices. (look up in the top right corner. Yes. Right there.)

Webinars Coming up from the EPA:

  • Feb 23, 2016 — Pest Prevention by Design in Schools
  • March 15, 2016 — IPM for Turf on School Grounds
  • April 19, 2016 — Vertebrate Turf Pests
  • May 17, 2016 — Ants – The #1 Pest in Schools
  • June 7, 2016 — Termite Mitigation in Schools – A Holistic Approach

Also available: Pesticide Recertification credits (prices for credit hour set by DEC)  online at The Distance Learning Center, Cornell’s Pesticide Management Education Program  http://coursem.cce.cornell.edu/

This site is the home to on-line pesticide applicator courses produced by Cornell Cooperative Extension. These are accepted in New York, Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, West Virginia and most of New England. A partnership between PMEP and the NYS IPM program is an essential element in creating the courses. The creation of this site was made possible through grants from the US-EPA Pesticide Stewardship program and the USDA Smith Lever funds.

Environmental Health in Schools

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This week, we celebrated National Healthy Schools Day, making it a good time to share some of the EPA’s resources. Their common-sense, voluntary guidelines help schools create a “holistic, comprehensive, and actionable strategy that integrates preventative measures and addresses environmental health issues by fostering well-maintained school buildings and grounds.  Sustainable school environmental health programs promote environments that are conducive to learning and protect the health of building occupants.  Successful school environmental health programs are best implemented and maintained by promoting awareness and participation among teachers, staff, and students.”

Here’s the five major components:

Practice Effective Cleaning and Maintenance.  aka Green Cleaning… using products that have low volatility, neutral pH, no known carcinogens and are biodegradable.

Prevent Mold and Moisture, which not only affects building longevity, but can increase pests such as mites, roaches and rodents which also increase asthma and allergies.

Reduce Chemical and Environmental Contaminant Hazards. This is not just pesticides, but includes mercury, lead and PCB-containing products.  Here’s a guide to help you recognize risks.

Ensure Good Ventilation.  Indoor air can be two to five times more polluted than outdoor air and large populations of children might be more susceptible to indoor pollutants than the general population.  The EPA uses ASHRAE national standards.

Prevent Pests, and Reduce Pesticide Exposure.

This sounds just like IPM to us!

For more on  how each of these components fits in to an IPM policy in your school, visit the NYS IPM Program.

National Healthy Schools Day

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April 7th is National Healthy Schools Day.

Since 2002 parents, teachers, school nurses, custodians, advocates, and agencies have promoted National Healthy Schools Day activities nationwide. Whether you are at the beginning stages of investigating school environments or have an established Indoor Air/Environmental Quality program, the Healthy School Network invites you to host a local activity that educates others and celebrates your school’s successes.

National Healthy Schools Day is coordinated by Healthy Schools Network in partnership with many agencies and organizations.  Together they promote the use of EPA’s IAQ Tools for Schools guidance as well as other EPA environmental health guidelines and programs for schools and children’s health.

Locally, New York State’s NYSERDA (The NYS Energy Research and Development Authority) and the NYS Education Department released NY-CHPS, comprehensive healthy and high performance school design guidelines for NYS schools. Healthy Schools Network worked to bring the NYS Education Department and NYSERDA together to create these guidelines and then served as an advisor to the project during its development.

These guidelines were adopted in 2007 and are now available at…
http://www.p12.nysed.gov/facplan/documents/NY-CHPS_Sep2007finalNYSERDA.doc

With recent news events, there is also more focus on how far a school is from railroad tracks or proposed oil pipelines, as well as gas wells.

The most basic effort lies in reducing the use of chemicals for cleaning.
“Green Cleaning” helps everyone in a school environment and can teach us about products used at home.

The New York State Integrated Pest Management program promotes healthy schools with our emphasis on IPM for schools.  Reducing pests and pesticides in schools is a major factor in improving indoor air quality.

For more, follow these links:

Cleaning for Healthy Schools

Healthy Schools New York

National Healthy Schools Network