Project Overview

Reports

Commodities

• Agronomic: grass (turfgrass, sod)

• Community and Urban Pest Management: school & child care

• Human Health: workers, residents, applicators

Target Pests

Practices

• Pest Management: behavioral control, biological control, biorational pesticides, botanical pesticides, chemical control, cultural control, decision support system, economic threshold, exclusion, mating disruption, mechanical control, monitoring/scouting, precision pesticide use, prevention, sanitation, weed ecology

• Sustainable Communities: public participation, public policy, quality of life, sustainability measures

The North Central School Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Working Group (WG), led by the IPM Institute of North America, proposes to improve environmental safety, health standards and educational outcomes in the region’s schools. This will be achieved by sharing educational resources that guide school staff in successfully implementing IPM into everyday practices and curriculums. 

With new funding, the WG will promote, develop and distribute free IPM resources in the North Central region. This will ensure that school employees, IPM trainers and—for the first time—students have access to no-cost, scientifically-vetted IPM educational tools. The Pest Defense for Healthy Schools (Pest Defense) portal will provide most of the WG’s research and resources to schools. The Pest Defense program includes 10 content modules tailored to specific school employee groups including: custodians, maintenance, facility managers, landscape professionals, food service professionals, nurses, teachers and administrators.

The WG plans to expand Pest Defense trainings and resources in 2022-2023 to help the NCIPMC achieve its fifth priority of “Identify and communicate with diverse audiences and expand innovation throughout all levels of IPM”. The WG, the IPM Institute and Pest Defense have developed and strengthened relationships with other organizations invested in promoting school health and environmental sustainability, particularly with organizations that target schools in low-income and minority communities. Currently, the IPM Institute manages an EPA Environmental Justice Small Grant in partnership with the Wisconsin Asthma Coalition and Wisconsin Green & Healthy Schools Program that will deliver five in-person Pest Defense workshops to Milwaukee Public Schools in 2022. Further, the National Education Association has provided funding for 10 virtual Pest Defense workshops across the priority states of New York, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Hampshire, Vermont, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming that the WG will deliver in 2022. 

Objective 1: Establish the North Central School IPM Working Group and its The Pest Defense for Healthy Schools as a central hub of information and the de facto school IPM program.

Objective 2: Organize and host 10 Pest Defense virtual workshops that train school staff to incorporate IPM into everyday facility and grounds management practices. 

Objective 3: Incorporate Pest Defense and IPM into school curriculums through administering interactive programs for K-12 students.