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News you can use
- Last Chance Virtual School IPM Coordinator training
- Statewide pest management trainings for school coordinators start in March
- From pests to pollutants, keeping schools healthy and clean is no simple task
- SPN: Warm-Season Turfgrass Fall/Winter Preparation
- Uninvited vultures draw community ire: AgriLife provides solutions to human-vulture conflict
Author Archives: janet.hurley
SPN: The Importance of Educating Staff about Your IPM Program
Integrated pest management (IPM) is a process that requires cooperation among all school staff members, faculty and students and pest management professionals within a school district. IPM is a strategy of managing pests using multiple control tactics that provide the best control with the least cost and environmental impact. IPM is based on thorough knowledge of the pests and the technologies used to control them and can be performed by anyone with proper training. A good IPM program attempts to make schools less hospitable to pests by modifying… Read More →
SPN: School IPM and Pest Control Recordkeeping
In this newsletter we are going to look at some of the more frequent problems that are encountered during a school integrated pest management (IPM) inspection by the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA). Texas is one of the few states that require all persons who apply pesticides to hold a noncommercial applicator license if they make applications not just in schools but other locations as well. Under the Occupations Code Chapter 1951 the following employees must be licensed if they apply pesticides: State government employees and/or Persons performing… Read More →
Bugs and basil: Insecticides and veggies don’t always mix
Who wants to eat insecticide? Not me, and I’m guessing certainly not your customers. So if your company does residential pest control, are your employees trained to know what to do when they encounter a vegetable garden, fruit or nut tree in a backyard? And are they trained to answer a customer’s questions about the safety of their insecticides around vegetables or herbs? I’m guessing this subject is not commonly addressed in technician training classes. I was asked by an industry sales representative this week: “Is it appropriate… Read More →
SPN: What Worm are You?
Bagworms, webworms, army worms, there are a lot of different “worms” out there that can make your shrubs and trees look unsightly. Depending on where you live in Texas you might have seen one of them and wonder what you should do about them. Before you get too confused, while worm is in the name they are really caterpillars. And we know that caterpillars will cocoon and turn into a moth or butterfly. Bagworms: Bagworms can be seen hanging from the twigs of a variety of trees and shrubs…. Read More →
Water-Wise Tips for Turfgrass
Developed by Becky Grubbs, PhD and Ben Wherley, PhD AggieTurf to help you manage your turf a water-wise checklist for the hottest and driest months of the year. Click this link for a downloadable version Task Reason Additional Resources Mowing Mow at the upper end of the appropriate mowing height range for your species of grass Taller grass = Deeper Roots. Deeper roots can improve overall infiltration and access to water deeper in the soil. For more information on appropriate mowing heights for your species, visit the AggieTurf… Read More →
SPN: New kissing bug guide published to strengthen the fight against Chagas disease
A guide to help battle a potentially fatal disease transferred by a blood-sucking insect called the kissing bug has been published by a task force led by The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). While it may not make good bedtime reading, the new image-based guide from the Texas Chagas Task Force could keep you from falling victim to a disease caused by a parasite that the kissing bug carries. The parasite is Trypanosoma cruzi (T.cruzi), and the disease it causes is called Chagas disease…. Read More →
Summer Management Considerations for School Sports Fields
Summer management for both active and inactive sports fields is critical to maintaining healthy, safe fields year-round. Even just light maintenance can make a huge difference in what is possible when school starts again in the fall. Irrigation To prevent surface hardness from creeping up to dangerous levels, regular irrigation is important – even for those fields that remain otherwise inactive during summer months. In many parts of the state where fields are constructed atop our trademark “shrinking and swelling” clays, the lack of irrigation can result in… Read More →
SPN: Preparing for Summer
The school year is rapidly coming to an end and that means cleaning, repairing, and reviewing your IPM records. This newsletter is to help you prepare for the summer and help your IPM program grow. Before school ends be sure to send out an email to your teachers and principals reminding them to take home classroom pets, food items (even the macaroni art), and other personal items you would like out of their classroom. At the same time, you might need to remind them to store those items… Read More →
SPN: Texas IPM Stars; Head Lice and Bats
AgriLife Extension program bolsters Texas schools’ pest management approach Writer: Gabe Saldana More than a decade of work alongside Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service experts in integrated pest management, or IPM, has culminated in the national certification of four Texas school districts as “IPM Stars,” said Janet Hurley, AgriLife Extension school IPM specialist in Dallas. IPM Star certification from the IPM Institute of North America was awarded in April to Plano, Conroe, East Central and Killeen independent school districts for consistent exemplary marks on the institute’s 37-point evaluation…. Read More →
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