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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
Category Archives: Newsletter
School Pest News, Volume 11, Issue 6, October 2012
Calculate Your School District’s IPM Budget and Pest Risk Texas A&M AgriLife Extension school IPM extension specialists Mike Merchant and Janet Hurley have created an online IPM risk calculator to help schools estimate pest risk and IPM costs. The calculator includes an online questionnaire that leads the user through an IPM inspection, much like the inspection Hurley conducts when she visits a school. After data from the inspection are entered, the calculator generates a “pest risk report card” with a letter grade from A to F. A graph… Read More →
School Pest News Volume 11, Issue 5, Septemember 2012
Don’t Invite Pests to Breakfast Students learn better when they eat breakfast, and for many schools, that means a breakfast-in-the-classroom program. Studies have shown that students who eat breakfast at school have better attendance, are less likely to be tardy and exhibit fewer behavior problems than those who don’t. Can you serve breakfast in the classrooms and keep pests out? Evidence suggests the answer is yes. Lake Worth Independent School District (ISD) in Lake Worth, Texas has run a successful breakfast program for more than 15 years. Every… Read More →
West Nile virus fears prompt diligence in schools. Common question: Can students use mosquito repellents at school?
With Dallas officials having declared a state of emergency in regards to West Nile virus, Texas AgriLife Extension Service personnel are being flooded with calls from area school integrated pest management coordinators seeking information to allay parents’ and teachers’ mosquito concerns once school starts. “It’s a valid concern, but one that’s manageable,” said Janet Hurley, AgriLife Extension state school integrated pest management specialist headquartered in Dallas County. “State law mandates that public school districts in Texas, all 1,030 of them, must have a trained integrated pest management coordinator… Read More →
School Pest News Volume 11, Issue 4, August 2012
Cricket invasion hits parts of East and Central Texas By Steve Byrns, AgriLife Extension The current cricket invasion many are experiencing in parts of East and Central Texas isn’t particularly unusual, but the timing is, said a Texas AgriLife Extension Service entomologist. Dr. Michael Merchant, AgriLife Extension urban entomologist at Dallas, said he’s had a number of reports from Central and East Texas folks concerned with the high number of crickets they’re seeing this year. “I attribute this to early warm temperatures and recent rains that serve as… Read More →
Mosquito-proof your yard
The year 2012 is turning out to be one of the worst years in north Texas for West Nile virus since the disease crept into the state in the late 1990s. As of last Friday, there were 115 total human cases of West Nile virus (fever and neuroinvasive forms included) in Dallas County alone. And the summer, and peak WNV season, is far from over. Do-it-yourself Options There are several simple things everyone can do to fight back against mosquitoes. When going outdoors, using a personal repellent remains… Read More →
Pest Identification is Vital to IPM
“Proper pest identification is very important, because if you don’t know what kind of pest you’re dealing with, it’s very difficult to come up with a successful management plan,” says Janet Hurley, school IPM extension program specialist with Texas AgriLife Extension Service. Ants are a good example. Insecticide baits are available for many but not all species, and each bait product is effective for a limited list of species. With some types of ants, such as odorous house ants and carpenter ants, it is best to locate and… Read More →
Tips for More Effective Asthma Management in Schools
Asthma is a growing health problem, especially among school-aged children. Asthma prevalence has increased from 7.3% of the population in 2001 to 8.4% in 2010 (CDC NCHS Data Brief no 94 May 2012). In its 2011 Asthma & Children Fact Sheet, the American Lung Association reported that 7.1 million children under 18 had asthma. The Association also reports that the annual direct health care cost of asthma is approximately $50.1 billion (Asthma in Adults Fact Sheet). In 2008, there were more than 14.8 million asthma-related school absences (Meng… Read More →
A Simple Technique for Insect Removal | Insects in the City
It’s summertime in Texas. As the temperature gets hotter, we all retreat into our air conditioned homes from the exhausting heat. Unfortunately, many insects have the same idea. There is, however, an easy way to get pesky insects, spiders, and even geckos, out of the house without hysteria and breaking things. The Jar Technique is a simple way to capture small crawling animals using just two different materials found around the house: a jar and an index card, credit card or a piece of paper. via A Simple… Read More →
School Pest News Volume 11, Issue 3, June 2012
Typhus – By: Elizabeth “Wizzie” Brown, Extension Program Specialist Travis County recently had a death due to typhus, last year typhus showed up in the Lower Valley area. Typhus is one of those “diseases” that has not been prevalent for many years, but like everything else it is making a comeback. Typhus is a bacterial disease that can be spread by lice or fleas; fleas (rat fleas & cat fleas) are often the common vector. Typhus is caused by one of two types of bacteria- Rickettsia typhi or… Read More →
School Pest News Volume 11, Issue 2, April 2012
Learning Opportunities Abound By Janet Hurley Over the past ten years, we have watched school IPM information become more frequent. In addition to school IPM, we have seen IPM in public housing also increase. Rather than duplicate, AgriLife Extension will either be forwarding more emails or announcing more online training resources. Below is just a sample of what we have seen so far: During the month of March, the University of Florida released its Bed Bugs and Book Bags curriculum. The curriculum is designed for third through fifth… Read More →
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