Project Overview

Reports

Commodities

• Community and Urban Pest Management: public health, residential/housing

• Human Health: workers, residents, applicators

Target Pests

• Target Pests: various

Practices

• Pest Management: biological control, cultural control, exclusion, habitat modification, host resistance, mating disruption, mechanical control, monitoring/scouting, mulches - general, prevention, sanitation, temperature treatment

The New York State IPM Program recently launched a monthly, virtual series of 30-minute presentations that offers practical solutions to pest problems for general audiences. What’s Bugging You First Fridays seeks to make IPM a household term and teach people how to address pest problems in ways that minimize environmental, health and economic risks of pests, and the methods used to manage them. With funding from the Northeastern IPM Center, we can reach a broader, more diverse audience and increase our capacity to deliver excellent programming that is relevant to stakeholders throughout the Northeast. In this proposal, we outline a plan to improve audience engagement with incentives, diversify the audience and speaker lineup, and document adoption of IPM as a direct result of programming. Finally, we propose to develop best-practices guidelines for creating and disseminating an accessible, public-facing virtual series. These guidelines will help others looking to develop their own virtual programs by offering insights about logistics, including the registration process, making content accessible, and documenting impact.

1. Deliver engaging monthly presentations with timely content and actionable IPM steps, with one month devoted to a “First Friday Year in Review.”
2. Expand and diversify the audience of First Friday events to include broad participation from the Northeast region.
3. Develop a 2023 schedule that features diverse speakers.
4. Schedule First Friday Presentations in Spanish in 2022 and 2023.
5. Engage participants with a monthly challenge (incentive).
6. Document adoption of IPM practices through engagement challenge.
7. Develop best-practices guidelines for creating and disseminating an accessible, public-facing virtual series.