Tag Archives: workshop

Upcoming Trainings and Webinars

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Learning never exhausts the mind. -Leonardo da Vinci

One of the key tenants of IPM is knowing your pests, or potential pests, and risks. Learning opportunities become a valuable tool in helping to prepare for and prevent pest issues from arising. Here are some upcoming opportunities, most of them free.

NYS IPM Program

The NYS IPM Program partners with local organizations to provide a variety of educational opportunities. Here are a few to check out.

NYS IPM will be at Insectapalooza talking ticks. Learn how to find them and leave with a tick removal kit.

NYS IPM will be at Insectapalooza talking ticks. Learn how to find them and leave with a tick removal kit.

October 19, 2019

Okay, not directly school or child care related, but fun! NYS IPM will be at the Cornell Department of Entomology’s Insectapalooza which promises to be “bigger and buggier” than ever. Pick up some ideas for bringing entomological adventures into the classroom. We heard rumors about chocolate covered crickets.

October 31, 2019

Just in time for Halloween, join NYS IPM’s Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann and Joellen Lampman to cover the scary topic of ticks on school grounds. Sponsored by NYSIR, the Tick Awareness & Management Workshop for Schools will take place in Saratoga Springs. This three hour workshop includes information on ticks and participants will build their own tick drags. We’ll then go outside to look for ticks on the school grounds. The event is free, but registration is required.

November 21, 2019

Lynn Braband will be discussing structural IPM.

Lynn Braband will be discussing structural IPM.

Capital Region BOCES is hosting Pest Management for Today’s Schools. We’ll discuss NYS regulations, turf and grounds IPM, and structural IPM. A walk-through exercise will be conducted at the end of the session to demonstrate pertinent IPM topics. The workshop is FREE for staff and administrators from districts participating in the BOCES Health-Safety-Risk Service and $25 for staff and administrators from non-participating districts and municipalities. A continental breakfast and lunch is included. Please register for the workshop by November 14, 2019.

April 22, 2020

Every year the NYS IPM program hosts an annual conference. The 2020 conference will focus on school IPM and be held in the NYSUT facility in Latham, NY. Save the date!

For more NYS IPM Program events, visit the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program Facebook events page.

EPA Webinars

For additional opportunities, the EPA hosts a webinar series featuring national experts from across the country, many of which directly address schools and child care centers. Upcoming relevant webinars include:

October 24, 2019      Preventing and Controlling Stored Product Pests

November 7, 2019    Smell That? IPM for Stink Bugs in Homes and Other Structures

December 10, 2019  IPM in Child Care Centers

February 2020          New Tick Threats and Controls – A Panel Discussion

March 2020              Creating Monarch Habitats in Schools and Communities

Previous events covered a variety of topics including IPM 101, IPM resources, bed bugs, head lice, turf grass, cockroaches, ants, ticks, mosquitoes, stinging insects, rodents, and birds. Webinar PDFs are available for all presentations and the recorded webinar is available for many.

Continuous Information

The Pest Defense for Healthy Schools

The NYS IPM Schools and Daycare Centers webpage has a number of resources to help your facility provide a safe learning environment.

The NYS IPM Schools and Daycare Centers webpage has a number of resources to help your facility provide a safe learning environment.

The Pest Defense for Healthy Schools, formerly known as Stop School Pests, is an online, school health training course for K-12 employees to improve school health. Users can choose from nine online courses, each created for different school staff groups.

NYS IPM Program Web Resources

And, of course, the NYS IPM Schools and Daycare Centers webpage is always available at https://nysipm.cornell.edu/community/schools-and-daycare-centers/.

 

What now? Winter sports field management

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The winter solstice has always been special to me as a barren darkness that gives birth to a verdant future beyond imagination, a time of pain and withdrawal that produces something joyfully inconceivable, like a monarch butterfly masterfully extracting itself from the confines of its cocoon, bursting forth into unexpected glory. – Gary Zukav

Winter solstice. Photo credit: nicolas_gent flickr

It’s now officially winter, but even now there are steps you can take to improve your fields for the spring season.

  • Attend educational programs – The Cornell Turf Team presents at numerous events during the winter months. Check our Facebook events pages for events near you. NYS IPM Program staff presentations can be found here. Your local BOCES also offers seminars. Don’t hesitate to give them suggestions for topics you are interested in learning more about. Can’t find a presentation near you? Check out the Cornell Turfgrass sports turf resources. You don’t need to dedicate much time out of each day on the website to greatly increase your turf management knowledge.

    Field management schedules can provide justification for your budget.

  • Check out the Field Management Schedules at http://safesportsfields.cals.cornell.edu/schedules. On deck: dormant overseeding. These schedules can also help you in developing (and defending) your budget.
  • Conduct site assessments for each field to direct resources (products, equipment, labor) to areas with greatest need. While you won’t be able to rate turf color or feel of ground, you can assess bare spots and where ice is accumulating – both areas to target for aerification, topdressing to raise low spots, and overseeding. For more information, visit http://safesportsfields.cals.cornell.edu/site-assessment. Once the growing season begins, be sure to update your site assessment.

    Cornell University turf specialist Frank Rossi talks about how to manage athletic fields to reduce injuries.

  • Develop or adjust field scheduling protocol – It takes a village to maintain safe, healthy fields and now is good time to begin or continue conversations about field scheduling. We have covered this topic at http://safesportsfields.cals.cornell.edu/field-scheduling. If you need help in convincing administrators, athletic directors, and coaches in the importance of investing in and protecting sports fields, the half hour presentation by Dr. Frank Rossi on Duty of Care covers a topic sure to prick up their ears – liability.
  • Maintain equipment – In between snow removal and frantic bed bug calls, make sure those mower blades are sharp and balanced. Spring will be here before you know it.

For the most up-to-date information on sports field management, follow the Cornell Turfgrass Program on Facebook and Twitter.

Keeping the Pests Out on a Budget: IPM workshops for safe playing fields

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“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” –  Benjamin Franklin

Calling all school, parks, and sports turf managers and lawn care providers! You have two chances to join the Cornell Turf Team as we look at the latest information on providing safe playing surfaces on sports fields.

June 27, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Lakeview Elementary School, Mahopac, NY
Full program | Pre-registration required by June 20
Contact: Jennifer Stengle js95@cornell.edu

August 3, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Coxsackie-Athens High School, Coxsackie, N.Y.
Full program | Pre-registration required by July 28
Contact: Joellen Lampman jkz6@cornell.edu

Topics will include the basics (fertility, irrigation, mowing); advanced techniques (overseeding, seed selection, and turf repair); pest prevention, identification and management; and more.

Coffee and lunch are included. The workshop is free for schools and parks personnel. All other turf managers, please bring $25.

NYS DEC Pesticide Credits: 4.25 in Categories 3a, 3b, 10; STMA CEUs: .375

For more information and to register, visit http://turf.cals.cornell.edu/news/safe-playing-fields-ipm-workshops/.

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!

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.