Previous Webinars about Integrated Pest Management in Schools

The EPA Center of Expertise for School IPM hosts a webinar series featuring national experts from across the country relaying educational and practical strategies for establishing and improving integrated pest management programs in schools. We invite you to review the information on the past topics.

Previous Webinars

Review the following information below on previous webinars.  Note that recordings of these webinars are included, when available.

Protecting Students from Mosquitoes and the Zika Virus at School

September  2016

These days, we can’t turn to TV, radio, or social media without hearing alarming stories of Zika virus. Mosquito-borne diseases have been responsible for much suffering throughout human history. Today, the diseases they transmit in the United States and its territories, including Zika virus, Dengue, chikungunya virus, and several forms of encephalitis, are continuing threats.

This webinar provided information about the mosquitoes that are of concern to schools and the interim guidance the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers for district and school administrators to help schools keep their students, faculty and staff safe from Zika virus. Also hear firsthand the steps a school district in Florida is taking to reduce mosquito populations in an effort to prevent mosquito-borne illness.

Our featured presenters were:
  • CDR Joseph Laco, US Public Health Service Environmental Heath Scientist, CDC National Center for Environmental Health
  • Michael Merchant, Ph.D., Urban Entomologist, Texas A&M Research and Extension Center
  • Dan Lisenko, Grounds and Maintenance Manager, Manatee County (Florida) School District

 

Back-To-School with IPM

August 2016

It's that time of year again and everyone can relate to the annual school supply checklist and the hours spent preparing for the upcoming school year. Notebooks - check. Pencils - check. But, how many school staff, parents or students stop to think about whether the school they will return to is a healthy learning environment - free of pests and unnecessary exposure to pesticides?

Did you know that the classroom environment can seriously affect student and staff health? Exposure to pests and unnecessary pesticides can affect student performance and often lead to school absenteeism. By taking simple steps, you can reduce pests in your learning environment.

This is a new school year, a new beginning! It’s a good opportunity for the School Administrator, facility manager, custodian, teacher, school nurse and others with key roles in the learning environment to embrace school IPM principles. We all look forward to a future where all schools can effectively manage pest management issues through integrated pest management and sustain healthy learning environments.

  • Download the question and answer summary as a PDF
  • Presenters:
    • Sherry Glick, Center of Expertise for School IPM, The US Environmental Protection Agency
    • John Bailey, Ph.D., Director of School Plants, Chesapeake (Virginia) Public Schools
    • Mervin Brewer, Assistant Custodial Supervisor, Salt Lake City (Utah) School District

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Termite Mitigation in Schools - A Holistic Approach

June 2016

Discovering termites in your school can become an expensive problem for facility managers and school administrators. It can also be disruptive to classroom instruction if swarms occur while school is in session. Schools, both new and old, can face drywood and subterranean termite infestations. Regular, informed inspections are needed to determine the location, extent, and cause of termite problems.

Schools have a host a challenges when confronted with a termite infestation. Communication with the school community is essential to address most pest issues, including termites. While it’s not critical for teachers to know the difference between winged ants and termites, the school IPM coordinator should be able to accurately identify ants, as well as both drywood and subterranean termites. It is also imperative everyone in the school community know who to call when there is evidence of a termite infestation.

Join us for a comprehensive look at termites and their prevention and control in schools.

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Ants - #1 Pest in Schools

May 2016

As students line up every day to enter their schools, so do the ants. Why are ants the #1 pest in schools across the country? They don't come to schools for the education. They do show up for the free meals. Implementing Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices in your school will solve most of your ant problems. If they cannot gain entry or do not find food, they will march to another location. However, fire and carpenter ants are particularly troublesome because they present unique hazards to human health or structures.

Join us for an exciting webinar that will emphasize ant prevention and control strategies that are consistent with a smart, sensible, and sustainable IPM program.

  • Listen to and view the recorded webinar Exit
  • Questions and answers
  • Presenters:
    • Dawn Gouge, Ph.D., Urban Entomologist with the University of Arizona, will introduce IPM for ants, common pest ants, and how to control them in your school.
    • Lawrence 'Fudd' Graham, Ph.D., Entomologist with Auburn University, will discuss management of fire ants that plague schools in the southern U.S.
    • Dan Suiter, Ph.D., Entomologist with the University of Georgia, will show us how to identify and control carpenter ants that devour buildings from the foundation up.
    • Frederick Remelius, Director of Operations at the Upper Merion Area (PA) School District, will discuss his district’s ant challenges and the IPM practices they implemented.

Stop School Pests & iPestManager – School IPM Educational Programs

May 2016

Join the Center of Expertise for School IPM as we get a sneak-peek at two new, free, online school IPM resources.

Dr. Dawn Gouge of the University of Arizona will describe the Stop School Pests program, a standardized, peer-reviewed, national IPM training program for school communities. Training materials include online and in-class teaching materials for all school community groups including administrators, facility managers, pest management professionals, IPM coordinators, landscape and grounds staff, custodians, maintenance staff, nurses, food service staff and teachers. Proficiency exams allow students to print certificates upon successful completion of the courses.

Janet Hurley of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension will introduce us to iSchool Pest Manager, an online hub for school IPM materials. It provides easy, searchable access to a multitude of school IPM documents using computer, tablet, or smartphone.

These new resources, developed through EPA School IPM grants, are intended to help schools initiate and grow their IPM programs thereby providing students, faculty, and staff with healthier learning environments.

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Vertebrate Turf Pests on School Grounds

April  2016

It's a beautiful spring day and you are watching a girl's field hockey game. Suddenly, the ball disappears into a hole in the middle of the field. Across the way, a soccer game suddenly stops as a youngster trips on a hole in the turf. In both cases, the fields seemed in perfect condition only a few days prior. What happened?

It is sometimes easy to overlook the little varmints busily working below ground to access the roots, grasses, and insects found in many school's turf. Vertebrate turf pests, including moles, voles, pocket gophers, prairie dogs, and groundhogs, are found across the country. Our presenters will share their experiences in investigating and resolving conflicts with these pests. Join us to learn how you can incorporate vertebrate pest prevention and control in your school district’s Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program.

IPM for Turf Pests on School Grounds 

March 2016

Whether school turf management has been part of your job for years or you're just starting out, this webinar will describe how you can implement Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices into your turf management program. This webinar will provide insight for improving the quality and playability of your athletic and recreational fields. You will leave with an increased understanding of the importance of IPM in turf maintenance, cultural and physical control options, record keeping and key turf issues that can be addressed and applied to your program.

Join us to learn how you can incorporate IPM into your school district's turf management program.

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Pest Prevention by Design in Schools 

February 2016

It's easy to find yourself dealing with pest issues in the moment.  However, much can be done to target the source, rather than the symptoms, of pest infestations.

The Pest Prevention by Design Guidelines Exitprovide architects, engineers, builders and the green building community information on designing pests out of buildings. For example, where a school may traditionally address a rat infestation with rat poison, the guidelines would recommend sealing the gap in the door frame that let the animals enter in the first place, putting a better lid on the dumpster out back, or removing the English ivy from the landscaping (a preferred rat habitat). By following these recommendations at the design or retrofit stage of construction, we can keep pests out, thereby improving indoor air quality and saving money over the life of the building.  

Join us to learn how you can better incorporate pest prevention by design principles in your school district’s Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program.

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Bed Bugs in Schools

December 2015

Bed bugs continue to hitchhike into schools across the nation, creating challenges for the administrators, facility manager, and school nurses. This presentation discusses the challenges bed bugs present and your important role in protecting students and staff. Successful bed bug management requires a proactive strategy and begins by engaging and educating the entire school community on how to recognize and stop them. Explore with us your role in a bed bug action plan and see a working district wide bed bug plan in action. Round out your bed bug education by reviewing control tactics that are consistent with the smart, sensible, and sustainable guidelines of a school Integrated Pest Management program. Join us and become empowered to help keep bed bugs out of your school!

This webinar is one in a series of EPA presentations offering information on IPM to help school districts adopt a proactive approach to pest control. The presentations are geared specifically to the school community: facility managers, buildings and grounds managers, staff, nurses, administrators, and IPM coordinators. Our IPM webinar series has already reached more than 1,200 school officials, representing more than 12 million students across the country. IPM is a smart, sensible, and sustainable approach to managing pests that takes action to address the underlying causes that enable pests to thrive.

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Writing an IPM Policy for Your School District

November 2015 

Providing a healthy learning environment for students, teachers, and staff that's free of pests and eliminating the unnecessary use of pesticides can be challenging. Implementing an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program, with its smart, sensible, and sustainable practices, will put you on the path to a healthier school environment. The most successful IPM programs are found in schools with district-level IPM policies.

Join EPA's Center of Expertise for School IPM for a webinar that will detail the development, approval, and implementation of a school IPM policy. We will review the purpose, goals and components of a well-constructed policy. A school superintendent will detail what led his district to adopt IPM and how it progressed from administration buy-in to district-wide adoption. A facility manager, will discuss the value of cross-program support for a school IPM policy and strategies to gain broad buy-in throughout the district. We will conclude with our presenters addressing your questions.

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Managing Head Lice in Schools

October 2015

Back-to-school is the time of year when head lice are most common. Nearly every school has faced an outbreak at one time or another. Staff and administrators must work in conjunction with families at the first signs of an infestation to prevent its spread throughout the school community. Join our distinguished presenters for a review of head lice epidemiology, public health significance, diagnosis, school protocols, and control strategies that are consistent with the smart, sensible and sustainable practices of a school IPM program.

  • Listen to and view the recorded webinar Exit
  • Questions and answers 
  • Presenters:
    • Richard Pollack, Ph.D., Senior Environmental Health Officer, Harvard University
    • Nichole Bobo, Director of Nursing Education, National Association of School Nurses
    • Deborah Pontius, Health Services Coordinator, Pershing County (Nevada) School District

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How to Conduct a Pest Assessment at Your School

September 2015

Regular pest management assessments and walk-throughs are key to a successful Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program. EPA's Center of Expertise for School IPM explored why and how to do systematic inspections, known as crawl-throughs, of your school to recognize pest-conducive conditions and the calling cards left by pests. Valuable information on the importance of pest inspection, identification, monitoring, and recordkeeping was provided. 

This presentation on conducting a school pest assessment is part of a webinar series sponsored by EPA's Center of Expertise for School IPM to help school districts adopt a proactive approach to pest control by offering information on Integrated Pest Management. The presentations are geared specifically to the school community - facility managers, buildings and grounds managers and staff, nurses, administrators, and IPM coordinators. 

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Keeping Your School Free of Stinging Insects

May 2015

EPA's Center of Expertise for School IPM explored the ways to keep students and staff safe from stinging insects at your school. Stinging insects, mainly yellow jackets and wasps, present risks from their painful stings to potentially severe allergic reactions. In this webinar, you learned to identify these pests and the steps you should take to manage them as part of your Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program. IPM is a smart, sensible and sustainable approach to pest management recommended by EPA.

A Cornell University study on reducing stinging insects on school grounds was discussed. An overview of the tools needed to monitor, exclude, remove, and trap yellow jackets and wasps was provided along with their effectiveness and costs. The webinar concluded with a discussion of a school district's experience with these pests and the steps they took to prevent exposure to stinging insects. The featured presenters were:

  • Presenters:
    • Justin Schmidt, Entomologist, University of Arizona
    • Lynn Braband, Community IPM Educator, Cornell University
    • Mark Hardin, IPM Specialist, Howard Co. (Maryland) Public School System

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Contending with Vertebrate Pests Around Schools

March 2015

This presentation discussed the challenges that large vertebrate pests present and some tried-and-true ways to deter them from your school buildings and grounds. The webinar included a brief overview of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and how the control of vertebrate mammals around schools should be a part of an overall IPM program. Specific problems with squirrels, raccoons, foxes, deer and feral cats were discussed along with solutions to the difficulties caused by these opportunistic pests.

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Dealing with Nuisance Birds around Schools

February 2015

All over the nation, birds of all shapes and sizes attempt to make schools a their favorite hangout. Their arrival can lead to sanitation issues, added facility degradation, distracted students and health problems. They can cause headaches for everyone from teachers to facility managers. This presentation discussed the challenges that avian pests present and some tried-and-true ways to deter them from your school buildings and grounds. The webinar included a brief overview of Integrated Pest Management and how bird management should be a part of an overall IPM program. The health and related sanitation issues caused by birds were presented followed by a discussion of issues with birds and buildings, focusing on bird exclusion tactics for school facilities. Specific problems with sparrows, starlings, pigeons, vultures, osprey and gulls were discussed along with solutions to the difficulties caused by these opportunistic avian pests. Management tips for Canada geese were also provided.

  • Questions and answers
  • Presenters:
    • Mark Hardin, IPM Specialist, Howard Co. (Maryland) Public School System
    • Dan Lisenko, Grounds and Maintenance Manager, Manatee Co. (Florida) Public Schools
    • Lynn Braband, Community IPM Educator, Cornell University
    • Marcia Anderson, Ph.D., EPA's Center of Expertise for School IPM

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Keeping Rodents Out of Your School

January 2015

Rodents and their control can present significant challenges for schools. Mice and rats can cause physical damage in and around buildings and pose health risks to students and staff.

School facility and buildings/grounds managers joined Drs. Robert Corrigan and Claudia Riegel as they discussed the health significance of rats and mice in schools and how to identify their food sources, harborages, signs of activity. An introduction to rodent control practices including waste management, sanitation, exclusion, and chemical options followed. The final segment included a discussion of protecting non-target populations, safety tips for school environments, personal protection, and special considerations for structural foundations, playgrounds, and sports fields. 

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Bed Bugs in Schools

December  2014

Bed bugs continue to show up in schools across the nation. Their arrival can cause headaches for everyone from the administration to the nurse and facility manager. This presentation discussed the challenges bed bugs present and your important role in protecting the students and staff. Bed bugs are uniquely different from most indoor pests. Few pests evoke such strong emotional responses and present such a management challenge. Successful bed bug management requires a proactive strategy and begins by engaging and educating the entire school community on how to recognize and stop them.

This webinar is one in a series of EPA presentations to help school districts adopt a proactive approach to pest control by offering information on Integrated Pest Management. The presentations are geared specifically to the school community - facility managers, buildings and grounds managers and staff, nurses, administrators and IPM coordinators.

  • Questions and answers
  • Presenters:
    • Dini Miller, Dodson Pest Management Lab, Virginia Tech
    • Susan Jennings, Public Health Liaison, EPA Office of Pesticide Programs
    • Marcia Anderson, EPA Center of Expertise for School IPM

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The Basics of School IPM

October 2014

The Basics of School Integrated Pest Management (IPM) webinar was hosted by the Agency's Center of Expertise for School IPM. IPM is a smart, sensible, and sustainable approach to managing pests. IPM takes action to address the underlying causes that enable pests to thrive.

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Creating Tick Safe Schools Using IPM

September 2014

Learn about this increasingly important pest and what you can do to reduce the risk to students, faculty and staff in schools.

  • Listen to and view the recorded webinar Exit
  • Questions and answers
  • Presenters:
    • Thomas Mather, University of the Rhode Island Center for Vector Borne Diseases
    • Marcia Anderson, EPA's School IPM Center of Expertise
    • Kathy Murray, Maine Department of Agriculture
    • Christine Dunathan, Friends Community School (College Park, MD)

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School Community Mosquito IPM

August 2014

Presented information on disease vectors of concern, their biology, integrating mosquito management into a School IPM plan, and a decision-making rationale for deploying pesticides for mosquito management. Preferred mosquito breeding and feeding habits were identified followed by a discussion of habitat modification including source reduction, sanitation, and maintenance to prevent mosquito borne diseases. Common biological controls were introduced, especially for school rain gardens, cisterns and other water collection areas. This was followed by a discussion on mechanical devices and pesticides including larvicides, insect growth regulators, and adulticides.

  • Questions and answers
  • Presenters:
    • Mike Merchant, Texas A&M Research Extension Center
    • Joe Conlon, American Mosquito Control Association
    • Marcia Anderson, EPA Center of Expertise for School IPM

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