Integrated Pest Management Systems

Master Gardener Pesticide Safety Training: The Bernalillo County Extension Agent was requested to provide the basic information about homeowner use pesticides to the Bernalillo County Master Gardeners. Since the master gardeners often are asked questions about pesticide use, it was important to stress pesticides labels and safety.

The planning was for a one hour class concerning pesticides labels and safety. The agent stressed the different parts of the label, and how to use products according to the label. Another important concept conveyed to the Master Gardeners was that the label is a Federal Legal Document. The class could be summarized in three words: READ THE LABEL!

There were 87 Albuquerque Area Master Gardeners who were trained in the class. The presentation was done with the Power Point program.

Private Applicator CEU Training: 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. The attendance by county was: Bernalillo – 3, Hildago -1, Sandoval – 2, and Valencia – 5. Ten re-certified and one did not have a license, but attended for the information. A pre-test and post-test was administered, and a formal evaluation tool was used. Those results were:

Private Applicator's Pre / Post Test Results 2006

Question #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10
Pre-Test missed 1 3 1 1 0 0 2 6 0 0
Post-Test missed 1 1 1 0 4 2 0 1 0 0

Test Scores 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total Average
Pre-Test 90 80 50 80 75 90 100 90 80 70 805/10 80.50%
Post Test 100 90 75 90 70 90 90 100 90 n/a 795/9 88.30%

The most frequently missed post test question was: "Which of the following is not considered a pesticide?"
Choices were: Insecticide, Herbicide, Fungicide & Penicullin. In future classes, I plan to spend more
time classifing the different types of pesticides. (Four of nine missed this question)
The other question with two of nine missing the answer was:" In a person applying pesticides suddenly feels ill,
they should: Choices were:Read the label, Get medical advice quickly, Take label or container to doctor or
All Three. More time will be spent emphasizing first aid or emergency procedures.

Overall the test results were 7.8% higher than the pre-test which was a significant increase in knowledge.
The one participant with the most increase scored 25% higher in his post-test.

The overall impact of the workshop was that 100% of the private applicators that attended were re-certified
to renew their NMDA Private Applicator Pesticide Licenses.



Evaluation
Private Applicators Workshop 2006
Saturday, December 16, 2006 Low Ave. High
Pesticide History, Labels & Safety 1 2 3 4 5
Comments: Number of responses 2 5 4
Percents 18% 45% 37%
1. Excellent Presentation
2. Very Good
Practical Application of Pesticides (Video) 1 2 3 4 5
Comments: Number of responses 1 3 7
Percents 9% 27% 64%
1. Very good video, lots of information.
2. Excellent Presentation
3. Very good.
4. Rodent part was very useful!
Pesticides & Groundwater Contamination 1 2 3 4 5
Comments: Number of responses 5 6
Percents 45% 55%
1. Excellent Presentation
2. Very good
2. Handout very useful - part hidden - modify slides?

Selected Poisonous Range Plants 1 2 3 4 5
Comments: Number of responses 1 3 7
Percents 9% 27% 64%
1. Lots of info…Very good slide show.
2. Excellent Presentation
3. Good - very useful!
Pesticide Handlers & the Workers Protection Standard (Video) 1 2 3 4 5
Comments: Number of responses 2 2 7
Percents 18% 18% 64%
1. Excellent Presentation
2. Very Good
3. Good review.

Overall Evaluation 1 2 3 4 5
Comments: Number of responses 4 7
Percents 36% 64%
1. Very good Course!
2. Bob did an outstanding job of presenting the material. He made it interesting and informative.
He was well prepared and knew the subject matter well.
3. Information and the way it was conveyed was easy to comprehend and retain.
How will you you use this information?
1. Towards application on private lands plus to identify plants that are deadly. Also as a refresher class.
2. For my own use.
3. This info will be useful when chemicals are used for treatment. Also when an animal gets sick.
4. For my own information.
5. Every time I spray my apple orchard
6. Anytime I spray or fight rodents.
7. Assess/protect pasture land.
Other Comments?
1. This course should e offered to all farmers & ranchers, regardless whether they have a private
applicator's license or not.
2. Very valuable information! Should be mandated before obtaining license.
3. Thanks for the course.
4. I liked the jokes!
Evaluation for Bob Pate, County Extension Agent file:Private Applicators WKSP EVALUATION - results-06

Attended the NMDA Commercial Pesticide Operator’s Training in Albuquerque. Learned about some of the new restrictions and upcoming procedures. Of importance to the Cooperative Extension Service, is a proposal that by 2008 trainers must be certified to teach pesticide classes from a core curriculum that they want taught for license renewal. I also promoted the Bernalillo County Extension Office as a resource for applicators needing positive identification of insects or plant diseases, Etc. Twenty-five new people have knowledge that NMSU Cooperative Extension Service is available to help them with research based information.

Sand burr in grass hay field: Visited Lynn Wills grass hay field at 747 Chavez Rd NW to evaluate a weed problem. His pasture is inundated with sand burr and there are no chemicals registered for killing a grass in a grass. Even though sand burr is an annual, there are no pre-emergents registered for this use. I recommended that he plant alfalfa for a couple of years, use something like Treflan TR10 to get sand burrs under control, then go back to growing grass hay. Met with his custom farmer as well, Matthew Bernal.

Homeowners and commercial properties use a tremendous amount of pesticide chemistry every year. Due to several factors, including lack of specific knowledge and a "more is better" philosophy, these uses account for a large proportion of mis-applied pesticides. People quickly reach for any number of pesticide products at the first sign of landscape problems (e.g. dead areas in turf lead to application of fungicides, prior to confirmation that a fungal problem exists and without correction of underlying environmental conditions allowing fungal growth to occur).

I work with a number of local and regional landscape maintenance firms and public institutions, helping them identify damaging insects and diseases, and helping them understand the underlying environmental conditions that may be contributing to the severity of expression. I have worked with TruGreen Chemlawn, Waterwise Landscapes, Tree Sculptors, National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque BioPark, Scientific Tree Care, Craig Pest Control, Expo New Mexico, HeadsUp Landscaping, City of Albuquerque Parks Division, Arca Organics, A-Ron’s Pest Control, Divine Earth Aesthetic Pruning, Baca’s Trees, and many, many others. Consultations usually result in accurate identification of casual organisms and/or conditions, and recommendations to alleviate conditions and control organisms. Agent has not developed formal evaluation document for these people to use to provide feedback, but judging from the number of repeat callers and the number of referred callers, I have become seen as a reliable expert to this industry.

In the Master Gardener trainings, I emphasize some of the same concepts. We teach interns about good plant selection, appropriate care, and the intricacies involved in accurately identifying organisms that may or may not be pests. We teach them to recommend holistic approaches to landscape problems, which may or may not involve the use of toxic pesticide materials. This season, our class numbered almost sixty new interns. We administer a pre- and post-class knowledge survey, and see an average increase in knowledge, as captured by the survey, from 64% correct to 81% correct. As many of these questions deal with the underlying factors affecting pest pressures, as well as with common pests themselves, it gives up a good indication that our training is working well to inform the Master Gardeners, who in turn communicate with thousands of area residents every year.

Presentations that I developed and presented for the 2007 Master Gardener series that related to IPM include: Albuquerque Soils, What to do About Weeds, Common Weeds of the Albuquerque Area, Pests: Symptoms to Causes, Diseases: Symptoms to Causes; I.P.M.: Basic Principles and Concepts for Master Gardeners, and Master Gardener Diagnostic Process. Typical scores on Speaker Evaluation forms are 9 or 10 out of 10 in areas such as Scope, Usefulness, Organization, Content, Met Expectations. Typical answers to the question (from same Speaker Evaluation form), “What did you like most about the presentation and why?” include: “The speakers knowledge and enthusiasm + his ability to convey information clearly”, “Presenter is engaging and helpful; followed the written material”, “A lot of things I didn’t know”, “At appropriate level with good explanation of terminology”, “Content, enthusiasm made it even more interesting, he took questions comfortably and answered confidently”, “Energy, enthusiasm, knowledge, anecdotes, and humor – Great?!”, “Joran is a great speaker, mixing fact and anecdotes well”, “Very, very informative”.

I also field from five to fifteen calls per day, on average, during the busy season (April through August). Of these, a good number have to do with pest control questions. These are mostly landscape issues, but I will take calls related to indoor pests as well. On the majority of these types of calls, I am able to make an accurate diagnosis of the problem, and suggest both fundamental corrections to the plants’ environment, and where appropriate, chemical control recommendations. Often these latter fall along the line of NOT using a given chemical or pest service, as the use would not be appropriate. I have saved homeowners many thousands of dollars in un-necessary pesticide applications, and reduced environmental contamination due to pesticide overuse in the process.

In addition to calls and walk-in clients, I go out on field visits quite frequently. Many of these site visits are to individual homeowners, but also include commercial and institutional sites. While this takes some time per client, it also provides the client with the absolute best information I can, and I learn more in the process. These clients become some of Extension’s best advertisers, a situation which leads to ever more calls. A typical thank-you note from one of these clients reads as follows:
“Sept 19, 2007; Dear Horticulture Agent Viers, This note is to thank you for your encyclopedic insight/research into recent pests in my new landscape. I had heard you were very helpful, and I completely concur! What a great service you offer, and a terrific example of our tax dollars at work! I hope I can contact you again if I have creatures I can’t identify. I going to look into the book you recommended and maybe that will help me stay out of your hair. Thank you again for your generous time and help. Barb Rowe, Bernalillo County Resident”.

For most of my clients, changes in knowledge occur at a very basic level. They come to me knowing very little about a situation, or knowing incorrect information. The new knowledge they go away with should cause many changes in their behavior as it relates to pest control. For some, this change is seen in how they view arthropods in the environment in general (with a strong move away from, “if it moves, it’s bad and must be killed”); for others, it is new information on an existing problem that expands their ability to take actions that will have the desired results. With some of the more experienced clients, be they landscape professionals or life-long gardeners, changes are more subtle and often consist of fitting in a missing piece of the puzzle. These clients would not report as dramatic a change in knowledge or behavior, but the changes they do make certainly result in positive impacts in their efforts.