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IPM
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August 31, 2007 New York City schools have won
a new distinction – IPM STAR Certification, earned after an intensive,
third-party inspection and a year of hard work to implement improvements. Integrated Pest Management, or
IPM, is a team approach to solving pest problems – focusing on avoiding
“pest-conducive conditions” that make pests feel at home.
By involving everyone with a role in pest prevention, many problems
can be completely eliminated, permanently, without resorting to
potentially hazardous pesticides. The IPM team at New York City
Department of Education has a new member – Michael Siciliano, director
of pest control. Siciliano
manages a top-notch IPM program initiated by assistant director Dan
Dickerson in 1988. The Department includes 1200
school buildings with a population of more than 1 million students. Six
hundred of these buildings are in use year round. As new director, Siciliano’s goals include increasing the frequency of inspections of school facilities by pest control staff, improving professionalism and technology, and communicating more regularly with allied staff, including administrators, teachers and food service, custodial and maintenance staff. Typical school pests include
mice, cockroaches, ants and stinging insects.
Preventing mouse problems includes common sense practices like
encouraging teachers to avoid clutter in classrooms and storage closets
– so these areas can be cleaned and inspected readily and regularly. Food service staff work to
keep kitchen areas clean and free of food and water sources for mice,
cockroaches and ants. Custodial staff have responsibility for cleaning
other areas of the school – including staff lounges, locker rooms,
mechanical rooms that can be trouble spots for pests due to potential for
access to food, water and warm shelter that pests need to survive and
thrive. By maintaining a tight
building “skin,” maintenance staff can reduce heating and cooling
costs – and prevent pest entry into schools.
Mice can squeeze through a hole the size of a pencil diameter, so
keeping door sills, sweeps and seals in good repair is key. To get the entire team on
board, Siciliano has already conducted a training for upper management in
the food service group on IPM. Upcoming
classes are scheduled for teachers, as well as food service, custodial and
maintenance staff. Since 1988, the program has
made extraordinary progress in reducing pesticide hazards, including
eliminating spray and fogging applications in favor of ready-to-use baits
and traps when needed. A new
pilot project with the Department of Health is focusing on advanced
measures in two schools. Siciliano
is also testing hand-held tablet computers, to track pest complaints and
service records, to improve his ability to target resources towards
problem schools. IPM Prepared
by the IPM Institute as part of the IPM |
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