Tag Archives: asthma

SPN: Welcome Back to Campus: let’s not bring in unwanted guests

Where has the year gone? Our campuses are bracing for full student and staff occupation, but are you ready for the pest invasion as well?? Did you know that schools have four more times occupants than office buildings for the same amount of floor space? (Schools for Health.org) And yet we don’t always think about how to manage these areas to keep pests like ants, cockroaches, bed bugs, ticks, fleas, mice, rats, and a whole lot more out of our buildings. In this newsletter are some tips everyone… Read More →

SPN: News and Resources, you can use for your IPM program.

This month’s newsletter is aimed at helping you out with a few resources you can use, plus some news stories you might be interested in that you can share. Understanding how to obtain a commercial or noncommercial pesticide license in Texas can be very confusing. Over the years I have devoted newsletter space to this topic. Last month for the joint TASB/AgriLife Coronavirus Confusion Abounds Webinar Series we covered Pesticide Licensing in TX. This session was recorded and can be found on YouTube. The video is an hour… Read More →

SPN: Tiny pests that drive you crazy – mites.

Although mites are not insects they often get grouped in with a vast assortment of urban insect pests. Mites are actually arachnids rather than insects since they have 8 legs (as adults) and two body regions as opposed to the six legs and three body regions that insects have. Mites are one of the most abundant groups of organisms on the earth. Beneficial mites include species that break down organic matter and predators of pest insects and other mites. While most mites carry out their business quietly without… Read More →

Disinfectant safety during the COVID-19 pandemic

As you prepare to open your campuses to students and staff, here are a couple of items to help you prepare. 1. The National Pesticide Information Center (NPIC) will hosting a webinar on  Disinfectant safety during the COVID-19 pandemic Wednesday, June 24  at  1:00 pm Central  In this webinar NPIC will address common misconceptions and questions about disinfectant safety. They will also tour EPA’s online tool for products effective against COVID-19. Topics include: Differences between cleaners, sanitizers, and disinfectants Why “contact time” is important for a disinfectant to… Read More →

Healthy Homes & Schools

The Healthy Homes and Schools program is designed to educate custodians, food service workers, school nurses, child care directors, nursing home managers and community health workers about the importance of connecting pest problems and the built environment when it comes to asthma, food borne illnesses and other problems. The Built Environment is defined as human-modified places such as homes, schools, workplaces, parks, industrial areas, farms, roads, and highways which our most important habitat, since 80% of North Americans live in towns and cities and spend 90% of their… Read More →

Healthy Homes & Schools

The Healthy Homes and Schools program is designed to educate custodians, food service workers, school nurses, child care directors, nursing home managers and community health workers about the importance of connecting pest problems and the built environment when it comes to asthma, food borne illnesses and other problems. The Built Environment is defined as human-modified places such as homes, schools, workplaces, parks, industrial areas, farms, roads, and highways which our most important habitat, since 80% of North Americans live in towns and cities and spend 90% of their… Read More →

The Role of School Nurses in Integrated Pest Management for Public Health

By Meredith Swett Walker is a writer for Entomology Today  School nurses do more than just apply bandages to scraped knees and administer asthma inhalers. They are also health educators, they help control communicable diseases, and they even do some pest management. In the past, the dreaded head louse (Pediculus humanus capitis) was likely the only pest a school nurse needed to worry about. But, with the rise of arthropod-borne diseases like Lyme disease, West Nile, and Zika, nurses increasingly find themselves thinking about tick and mosquito control… Read More →

School Pest News, Volume 12, Issue 4, June 2013

AgriLife Extension Hires a New Turfgrass Specialist Dr. Casey Reynolds has been named the new Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service state turf specialist and will begin July 1, according to Dr. Travis Miller, Texas A&M University soil and crop sciences associate department head in College Station. Reynolds will be headquartered in College Station in the department of soil and crop sciences. “We are very pleased to have Dr. Reynolds join our team,” Miller said. “Turfgrass is a commodity that most Texans enjoy, whether in their home lawn or… 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 →

October is Children’s Health Month

October is Children’s Health Month as you can see from a statement sent out by Lisa Jackson, Administrator U.S. EPA. EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection (OCHP) posted this article (see link below) this month of October for Children’s Health Month.  From the University of PA, an article on the “Importance of a Safe and Healthy School Environment: Pests, Pesticides and Children” will be posted on the EPA website.  The article focuses on: What is IPM?, The steps of IPM, Head Lice at school and home, and bed bugs.  The… Read More →