Integrated Pest Management Systems (Bernalillo County)

Private Applicator's Workshop 2007: The New Mexico Department of Agriculture sends lists of Private Applicators whose license are due to expire on December 31 of the current year. This County Agent planned, prepared and coordinated a five (5) hour CEU program so the Private Applicators could re-certify their license without having to re-test through NMDA. NMDA approved the workshop for the 5 CEU credits required. Letters were sent to the Bernalillo County private applicators, an e-mail to neighboring counties with a copy of the letter of invitation for any of their applicators wishing to attend. Counties applicators attending were Bernalillo, Valencia, Sandoval and Torrance. Verbal evaluation was that most learned 25% new information and would use it in their farming operations. 100% of attendees earned the required CEU’s for recertification.

1) In 2006-07, licensed pesticide applicators self-reported that at least 80% of them were aware they can collect and submit unknown pests to their NMSU county agents and/or NMSU specialists for identification and assistance in selecting methods or materials for pest management as

needed. For those submitting arthropod specimens for identification, fully 100% stated they were confident in their ability to identify again an arthropod previously unknown to them, especially when they were seeing the development of a trend with this particular pest. Information provided during the identification helped at least 80% of the applicators better understand the new arthropod’s behavior, host range, biology, damage potential and potential controls. Many (untabulated) expressed thanks for the information that they can use to better serve their clients.

2)At least 50% of returning Master Gardeners felt that repeating the entomology lecture and seeing the displays again or in conjunction with more advanced studies or visits to the NMSU Arthropod Collection added to their understanding of various local arthropods, their roles in the landscape and management strategies as needed. Basically, the more input, interaction and experience they get, the more they learn and the more confident they feel of their observation skills in the landscape. The best responses come from those who volunteer for phone duty or office duty at their county Extension offices.

3)After at least 2 years of disseminating and reinforcing IPM program information to clientele, state IPM specialist(s) and County Extension staff will share appropriate survey questionnaires to determine measurable changes in client social, economic or environmental situations as evidence of the impact dynamic IPM programs have on individuals, businesses and

industries within each county. Training objectives and course materials will be improved and updated as necessary.”
Data on entomology outreach programs via Extension efforts plus at least 2 research colleagues are compiled and reported annually for the Southwestern Branch, Entomological Society of America. Audience numbers and outreach events are tabulated and summarized from all over New Mexico, wherever this Specialist and her 2 research colleagues make presentations. Beginning in 2008, we’ll be composing a “suggestion” to teachers and others that they address a “thank-you letter” to one of us emphasizing how interesting or important the arthropod display was to student learning; this is a continuing effort to bolster administrative awareness of the Arthropod Collection and its significance and value to teaching and outreach (as well as research) at the college, university, state, regional and even national levels.

1) Students in beginner Ornamental and Turf certification workshops endure a day of instruction in a variety of subjects pertinent to passing their licensing exam. While the class I teach deals solely with arthropods, some of the other course work uses the same concepts of IPM and some of the same arthropods as casual examples for these concepts. This allows reinforcement for students, a chance for them to demonstrate recall of important subject matter likely to be covered in their licensing exam and an opportunity to link the presentation in entomology with subject matter covered in other lectures covering other pest groups. This area is still under development but could lead to a “recap quiz” for participants at the end of the day so they can get a “feel” for the exam they will take and how much effort it will require to pass it.

2)Returning Master Gardeners (year 2 and beyond) routinely report an increase of at least 10% in their confidence levels for arthropod identification, given 5 key arthropod pests they are likely to encounter in their landscapes. At least 70% of returning Master Gardeners can correctly identify a thorough and accurate definition of Integrated Pest Management and successfully identify three or more IPM methods/procedures for dealing with certain insect pests.

To provide teachers with tangible evidence of student listening and learning, age-appropriate activity sheets will be developed to complement entomology displays and presentations as they address educational standards and benchmarks.

3)In the Agent-Specialist planning sessions for 2007, agents in the Northern District identified urban/structural pests as subject matter for continued education for themselves and clientele. Some of these creatures as well as turf and ornamentals arthropods will be subjects of “news notes” distributed electronically and perhaps as pod casts to agents and others in 2008.

1)I instruct the beginner classes in pesticide applicator certification and training courses in general entomology and give students more detailed and illustrated examples of ten potential pests they could encounter in turf management and ten more potential pests they could find in management of ornamentals. All of these subjects are covered in the current revision of the Category 3A study guide for applicator hopefuls in Ornamentals and Turf. For all of the Category 3A beginner classes in 2005-06 (representative of classes instructed in other years), fewer than 5% of licensee hopefuls indicated any prior instruction in entomology in general, or arthropod pests on turf or on ornamentals. When the class is nearly complete, license hopefuls have seen and heard all of the basic information needed to pass the entomology portion of the licensing exam; they also have heard that the information given in class is in printed form in the study guide; they have been instructed to review it again before the exam. While none of the concepts are especially difficult, students indicate that at least 60% of them benefit from the lecture, learning and understanding concepts faster than they would on their own. At the completion of the class, 72% could successfully associate 5 or more pest arthropods with either their turf or ornamentals hosts. Their overall recall scores on mouthparts, development type, damage done, etc. for these 20 example organisms exceeded the 50% mark. They were reminded that the entomology portion of Category 3A was explained to them and that they had the opportunity to “test” their understanding without repercussions. Studying would improve performance.

2)For students in Master Gardener training in 2007, approximately 30% found information and pictures of potential new pests interesting in one way or another. At least 70% of the same students already thought those pests were established in New Mexico since many of these pests were present where students lived and gardened prior to moving to our state. Consequently, 70% of respondents learned that not all arthropods are distributed across the nation; gardeners watching and willing to submit mystery arthropod samples for identification or confirmation as Master Gardeners can have significant impacts on the state’s horticultural and agricultural interests.

3)At the end of 2007, we’re at this point of specialist-agent interaction and prioritization to identify and prioritize focal points for agent and client information needs for the coming year(s). “New invasive pests” have been included as “be on the watch for these” items in prior and current year Master Gardener training; many have been shared routinely with the commercial and public applicators at their certification & training workshops as well as with the annual reports for the Southwestern Branch Entomological Society of America, Insect Detection, Evaluation and Prediction Committee with which I have served for over 20 years, frequently as chair. I have also included general information on more “organic” or reduced risk pest control practices for home vegetable garden and some landscape situations, largely due to client preferences when specimens are submitted for identification. This is true for Master Gardener, general gardening/landscape clients and for at least some agents at their request.
Fully 90% of clientele asking the IPM entomology specialist directly for pest control information requested “organic methods” rather than more conventional approaches or insecticides due to concerns about personal health and well-being, environmental concerns and the health and well-being of pets, wildlife, livestock and children.

4)Displays of actual insects, both native and exotic, are almost always used for entomology outreach programs for youth and adults; PowerPoint presentations are usually reserved for specific, generally older audiences requesting specific instruction or topics. For all ages, displays are especially effective when the audience has the opportunity to view the

specimens “up close” and ask questions, making such an educational experience more interactive and better tuned to audience interests. Audiences have the opportunity to see and learn a bit about a minimum of 10 arthropods that they would likely see around their homes, as well as some of the extremes of these same species as they occur in other parts of the world. Features of insects, ticks, spiders, sun spiders, centipedes, millipedes, scorpions and vinegarones are typically illustrated with locally collected material, sometimes live. Specialists in the NMSU 4H Department demonstrated how the entomology instruction manual for 4H (by Richman and Sutherland, Insects Rule the Planet) meets various age-appropriate performance levels as shown for New Mexico’s educational standards and benchmarks for sciences and mathematics. Brochures for different classes and age groups will be under preparation since the manual has educational applications in schools as well as for 4H activities.

Was called to make a site visit to a pasture owned by Judith Caldwell to determine the best treatment to get rid of some broadleaf weeds in a horse pasture. I was not able to get a positive ID because the leaves and flowers had all disappeared after the frost, but told her the best time to evaluate and treat was spring when the pasture and weeds were growing. I mentioned use of Banvel which will eliminate broadleaf weeds in pasture and is registered for livestock use.