Project Overview

Reports

Commodities

• Additional Plants: native plants, ornamentals

• Animals: bees

• Community and Urban Pest Management: institution/shelters/municipal buildings/public places, public health, residential/housing, school & child care

• Ecosystem: Ecosystem

• Human Health: workers, residents, applicators

• Pollinators: habitat, honey bees

Target Pests

Practices

• Pest Management: behavioral control, biological control, biorational pesticides, botanical pesticides, compost extracts, cultural control, decision support system, economic threshold, exclusion, habitat modification, host resistance, mechanical control, monitoring/scouting, mulches - general, prevention, sanitation, weed ecology

• Crop Production: fertilizers, nurseries, nutrient management, water management

• Natural Resources/Environment: biodiversity, drift/runoff buffers, grass waterways, indicators, soil stabilization, wetlands, wildlife

• Production Systems: aquaponics, organic agriculture, transitioning to organic

• Soil Management: composting, earthworms, organic matter, other, soil microbiology, soil quality/health

• 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 expand on the WG’s successful track record of improving adoption of IPM practices in schools which results in large-scale environmental health and educational outcome improvements for North Central region schools.

In 2024-2025, the WG will focus on disseminating The Pest Defense for Healthy Schools trainings and resources to both K-12 school staff and students. The Pest Defense program includes 10 no-cost, scientifically-vetted IPM educational content modules tailored to specific school employee groups including custodians, maintenance, facility managers, landscape professionals, food service professionals, nurses, teachers and administrators.

Expanding Pest Defense trainings and resources in 2024-2025 will greatly help the NCIPMC achieve its stakeholder priority of increasing knowledge and implementation of IPM practices in K-12 youth. This proposal’s three objectives address potential barriers to the adoption of Pest Defense principles and concepts by (1) completing regular updates to the Pest Defense website, modules, webinars and other resources; (2) strengthening relationships with North Central state-lead agencies responsible for school IPM training and enforcing IPM and pesticide laws; and (3) creating and sharing new K-12 student curriculums covering IPM for invasive and nuisance pests and weeds in the North Central region.

The WG’s first objective will establish Pest Defense as a central hub of school IPM information. The WG will host bimonthly working group calls, publish monthly Pest Defense newsletters and add more interviews with IPM experts to the Pest Defense blog page. These activities will increase Pest Defense webinar, newsletter and training module participation and lead to more IPM adoption within North Central region schools.

For the second objective, the WG will partner with the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) to create a Pest Defense training module that covers Michigan school IPM and pesticide applicator laws. More than 25 Michigan pesticide applicators or K-12 school staff will complete this training module during the NCIPMC grant period.

The WG’s third objective will incorporate IPM into school curriculums by administering interactive programs for K-12 students.  The WG will partner with Kids in Action for Biological Control to develop new lesson plans focused on biocontrol or IPM of weeds and pests that threaten North Central region schools. IPM Institute and Kids in Action staff will pilot these lesson plans at Avery Coonley School in Downers Grove, IL, Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy in Chicago, IL and Escuela Verde in Milwaukee, WI. The WG will keep these lesson plans open source by adding them to the Pest Defense website. The IPM Institute strongly believes that these lesson plans will increase IPM adoption in schools by motivating K-12 students and staff to actively participate in the sustainable stewardship and management of their buildings and grounds.

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

Objective 2: Expand school IPM expertise in the North Central region by developing Pest Defense modules tailored to the school IPM and pesticide applicator laws of North Central states. 

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