Source: PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to
PENNSYLVANIA EXTENSION INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT FOR AGRICULTURE AND COMMUNITIES
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1001018
Grant No.
2013-41534-21069
Project No.
PEN04545
Proposal No.
2013-04116
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
QQIPM
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2013
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2015
Grant Year
2013
Project Director
Rajotte, E. G.
Recipient Organization
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
208 MUELLER LABORATORY
UNIVERSITY PARK,PA 16802
Performing Department
Entomology
Non Technical Summary
For more than fifteen years the Pennsylvania IPM Program has continued to evolve into an internationally recognized extension and outreach organization promoting integrated pest management awareness and practices that are economical and protective of human health and the environment. Our program reflects the needs of Pennsylvania as well as the fact that IPM researchers and extension specialists currently deliver well-integrated IPM programming in agriculture. All IPM programs in Pennsylvania strive to attain the following goals: Improving profitability through the adoption of IPM practices. Reducing potential human health risks from pests and pest management practices. Minimizing adverse environmental effects from pests and related pest management. However, PAIPM has designed its various programs to address particular needs. For instance in agricultural IPM programs, profitability and environmental degradation have heightened importance. In urban programs, human health has priority. For the next three years PAIPM will concentrate on developing and maintaining IPM educational programs in agronomic crops, specialty crops, housing and schools. In addition, PAIPM will continue to address public health pest management education and the use of geographic infromations systems to aid in IPM decision making.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
9036099113030%
9031510113070%
Goals / Objectives
This proposal builds on past work. Some of the activities are expansions and continuations of projects proposed in 2009 (Agronomic crops, vegetables, housing, public health, schools and wide area monitoring. Some projects are new (Hispanic-oriented programming, tree fruit biocontrol). Some have been de-emphasized (Conservation programs). Our program reflects the needs of Pennsylvania as well as the fact that IPM researchers and extension specialists currently deliver well-integrated IPM programming in agriculture. The programmatic changes anticipate the changing IPM needs in Pennsylvania including special emphasis on housing, schools and public health especially in urban environments. Also recognizing that traditional Extension organizations are changing due to population shifts and funding, we are promoting innovative agricultural programming to accommodate this change. All IPM programs in Pennsylvania strive to attain the following goals: Improving profitability through the adoption of IPM practices. Reducing potential human health risks from pests and pest management practices. Minimizing adverse environmental effects from pests and related pest management. The PAIPM program has two main goals: To promote IPM to rural and urban clientele, informing them about all IPM technologies, resources and educational opportunities across the state. This will be accomplished by: Maintaining an extensive, multifaceted communications effort that includes maintaining one of the most widely used IPM web sites (PAIPM.org) in the U.S., frequent news releases, newsletters and email listservers, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Produce brochures, manuals and web resources that aid in IPM education and decision-making. Communicate with the extensive, national, regional, state and university-based stakeholder panels. These panels allow PAIPM to keep current about important pest issues. Represent PA at the national level. Presently the IPM coordinator is an organizer of the National IPM Committee (NIFA and LGUs). In that role he is part of national policy discussions, especially as they affect extension programming. This provides special insight to PAIPM as to where future opportunities lie. Maintain collaborations with the Natural Resources Conservation Service of USDA. This provides a mechanism to align the goals and methods of NRCS and IPM programs throughout the U.S. Maintain the strong relationship with USEPA to deliver IPM programming to underserved urban populations and schools Leverage core funding by competing for state and federal funds to expand program capacity and output. Continue building on the ipmPIPE concept by using the Penn State supported PAPIPE to deliver pest forecasts and recommendations. Build partnerships with nontraditional partners such as state and local health departments. To provide primary IPM programming for some client groups that are not being fully served by regular extension faculty and educators. These primary programs include: Agronomic crop growers Specialty crop production in greenhouse, Christmas tree and Amish/Mennonite vegetables IPM in schools Public Health IPM IPM in housing Wide area pest monitoring and reporting Service to Spanish-speaking audiences
Project Methods
Core Program • Collaborate with partners and stakeholders in PA. • Maintain Stakeholder Engagement through periodic meetings and surveys. • Maintain Communication and promotion through press releases, news blogs, Twitter, newsletters, web site, email listservers, telephone and publications • Increase leveraging activity to enhance core funding by applying for external grants. Agronomic crops • Collaborate with county-based extension educators to deliver IPM messages to growers • Demonstration projects at Penn State's two research farms and through an on-farm network. • Education and demonstration of utility of pest scouting and monitoring. Specialty crops • Train growers to utilize alternative chemical application methods and to introduce the parasitic wasps, Trichogramma pretiosum and T. ostriniae, for biological control. The first objective of the project is to assign an IPM specialist (PDA IPM Specialist Schildt, county extension educator Abbey ) to work with several sweet corn growers to incorporate these alternative control methods into their operations through weekly one-on-one, in-field interactions. • Through weekly, on-farm personal field training sessions with an IPM/sustainable agriculture specialist and educational workshops, growers will learn pest identification, pest life cycles, and techniques of a biologically-based IPM approach. Growers will create a more natural and sustainable pest management system as they learn to effectively use scouting and record keeping; crop rotation; sanitation; cultural, mechanical, and biological controls; and biorational and reduced-risk pesticides. • Maintain a Christmas tree scouting program. A technician scouts key production areas across the state and publishes a scouting report/fact sheet weekly. The reports are coupled with our newly published Christmas tree IPM manual • We plan to launch a statewide campaign to educate growers about the release of Typhladromus pyri into orchards for red mite management. We will also include Maryland and West Virginia with which we have Extension programming agreements. • Determine the IPM needs of the Hispanic portion of the mushroom industry. We will do this by conducting assessments to determine topics of their interest, their level of knowledge about certain subjects in IPM such as disease and insects life cycles, sanitation, pesticides etc. Once the needs are determined, we will focus on developing fact sheets in English and Spanish on pests and diseases that affect mushroom cultivation. We will offer IPM trainings specifically for mushroom farmers in culturally appropriate ways. Housing Our approach to IPM in housing programming is currently focused on urban areas due to limited staffing, the ability to impact more people at one time and availability of pre-existing training curricula. Our staff in Philadelphia maintains and utilizes an urban partnership (Philadelphia School and Community IPM Partnership) to reach out to stakeholders, gather information in real time about needs and respond with targeted programming. Over the next three years we will work to continue this collaborative work, build new and improved outreach products in English and Spanish, include educational video footage in outreach products, and attempt to replicate this work in Pittsburgh where there is a strong extension presence and interest in building programming. In addition, we will work to incorporate healthy homes, IPM, and public health aspects of pests programming into statewide extension programming. Public Health We will both expand the expertise base and program development within existing CES staff in the Penn State system. The approach is to start with current CES personnel working in collaboration with the state on vector issues to form of a new, interdisciplinary working group, Pests Affecting People, Pets and Possessions (PAP3). This group would form the core of interested individuals to work in partnership with other agencies, NGOs as well as lobby the College of Ag Sciences CES to create and "official" Working Group on this topic. Schools PA IPM continues to participate in state, regional and national IPM in Schools efforts and collaborate with a multitude of school and environmental health entities to bring IPM information to schools and childcare environments. Going forward we will focus on integrating our IPM efforts with new state and national school environmental health efforts that are gaining influence within these environments. These include health standards for indoor environments being promoted and adopted by childcares as part of the new Caring for Our Children standards and other entities, use of new curricula incorporating IPM into the overall focus on environmental health for children created by PA IPM and translated into Spanish, use of new original video footage to emphasize key concepts and continued use of IPM Star and other materials from IPM Institute of North America targeting facilities managers. In addition, we will focus on bringing bed bug management information and prevention strategies to educational facilities and the families they serve. Wide area monitoring • An in-depth, hands-on train-the-trainer workshop will be developed and conducted for county extension educators and others who work end-users e.g. crop consultants. The goals related to vegetable diseases for this training will be to 1) refresh participants on the biology and epidemiology of important vegetable diseases as well as when and how to scout for these diseases; 2) learn macro and microscopic symptoms and signs of common diseases; 3) present background on disease forecasting and interpreting disease severity as they relate to the PA-PIPE and other disease forecasting systems. Additional goals related to insect management will focus on 4) the biology and ecology of pest species relevant to field and forage crops and how to scout for them, 85 train participants in the concepts and use of phenology models. And for both diseases and insects of field and forage crops, modules will 6) train participants how to report disease and insect outbreaks and add local and regional commentary to the PA-PIPE. • As part of the train-the-trainer training, county educators interested in providing observational reports during the season will be identified. Many of the county educators have experience helping scout, confirm and report outbreaks of cucurbit downy mildew to the CDM ipmPIPE website, and monitoring insect pest species using pheromone traps. • Background information on pest biology, epidemiology and management will be integrated into the PA-PIPE via links or downloadable pdf files to pre-existing fact sheets and bulletins. • We will develop additional phenology models to add more pest species to the PA-PIPE. For the most part, phenology models have already been presented in the literature, but need to be translated to a deliverable product.

Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/15

Outputs
Target Audience:1. Underserved populations in Philadelphia and elsewhere in Pennsylvania with household pest problems such as bed bugs, roaches, mice and rats. 2. Agronomic farmers in Pennsylvania 3. Daycare center operators 4. Mushroom growers 5. Vegetable growers including Amish and Mennonite 6. Tree fruit growers 7. Poultry producers Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We trained 61 field staff on the basics of Healthy Homes, IPM and bed bugs. We sit on their Health Services Advisory Committees (HSAC), as well as those from Norris Square Community Association (NSCA), and Philadelphia Health Management Corporation's (PHMC). We also trained and provided technical assistance to 20 Acelero Head Start staff which affects children in 10 facilities within the Hispanic community. We met with the director or real estate to discuss IPM for all facilities, held trainings for the janitorial and maintenance staff and continued multi-session training of all 78 education staff of their eight Head Start centers , impacting over 600 children . a) Essentials of Healthy Homes: Two-day course for agencies, housing facilities managers and others responsible for housing maintenance and resident health. Includes an introduction to pests, pesticides and IPM solutions. Reached 124 people in 5 sessions. b) IPM for Multi-family Housing: One-day course focusing on effective solutions for chronic pest problems in multi- family housing. Reached 83 people in 4 sessions. ob Training : Between January and June, we trained 4 high school students for the Philadelphia School District's Career Technical Education Program as Urban IPM Technicians, including sitting for their Pennsylvania Certified Pesticide Applicator exam . This pilot project was in cooperation with our partner, the Overbrook Environmental Education Center, Philadelphia. Professional Training Provided training for Delaware Pest Control Association Short Course Feb 2015 "IPM: Communicating with the Public on Concepts and Risks" to 85 PMPs. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? . How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Community and Public Health IPM We promoted IPM as an important route to healthy living and reducing asthma incidence throughout multiple partnerships with the community. Ongoing Partnership Maintenance 1) Maintained membership in the Philadelphia School and Community IPM Partnership (PSCIP) of 275 individuals and agencies, and growing list serve of ~400 . This partnership provides us with real-time information about the needs of Philadelphia communities on IPM issues. PSCIP staff took over 216 calls and countless emails from individuals or partners on pest issues, mainly bed bugs. We attended over 65 partner meetings and/or conference calls , contributing IPM perspectives on community issues. 2) Continued to support the Latino Community IPM Partnership Maintained the partnership network of 112 individuals and agencies Built and monitored a Latino community IPM list serve with 173 subscribers What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1) Local and state level a) Early Head Start (EHS) Project : Training Head Start program staff influences both the childcare facility and provides outreach via these staff into children's homes. We continued partnerships with Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the Health Federation of Philadelphia's (HFP) Early Head Start (EHS) programs. b) Norris Square Community Association (NSCA) Project : NCSA provides services and owns real estate in predominately low-income, Spanish-speaking neighborhoods of NE Philadelphia. They own 47 residential units , including 21 town homes, multifamily housing and stand-alone buildings and 5 commercial facilities and 4 childcare centers . 2) National and Regional Level a) Healthy Homes training througout U.S. done by PAIPM staff 4) Community / Health IPM Presentations/Trainings IPM in Childcares, Schools and College Campuses PA IPM staff maintained "healthy schools" partnerships in the state and region via meetings, conference calls, webinars and policy initiatives on school health, providing information and technical support on IPM. IPM in Childcare Centers Besides the previously mentioned Early Head Start and Norris Square staff trainings (see IPM in Housing), we completed and/or assisted in several other projects for childcare environments. 1) PA Academy of Pediatrics, Early Childhood Education Linkage System (ECELS) new "Pest Management; IPM Self- learning Module" for CEUs for childcare staff. PA IPM provided in-depth consultation and review. PA IPM and ECELS staff will co-present at the Early Childhood Education Annual Summit in December 2015. The module can be seen at http://www.ecels-healthychildcarepa.org/professional-development-training/self-learning-modules?start=20 2) Part Five in Better Kid Care Eco-Healthy Childcare series: "Start Your IPM Program Part 2: Implementation" completed, targeting center directors. Content enables directors to move from policy to implementation of their IPM program and provides suggestions for IPM training to educate staff and parents, how to hire a pest management professional and develop IPM action plans for common pests that could enter facilities. As of 6/15/15, 32 directors had taken the 2 hr training with total evaluation scores of 3.7 out of 4.0 possible for quality of information and implementable content. As of this date, all five on-line lessons in the series have been completed by 5,035 people for a total of 10,070 hrs of training and an average evaluation score of 3.44 . To access all lessons, see: https://bkc.vmhost.psu.edu/fmi/iwp/cgi?-db=BKC-OnDemand&-loadframes 3) IPM inspection in childcare videos (2) completed and are accessible on our website: http://extension.psu.edu/pests/ipm/schools-childcare/childcare/ipm-childcare-videos One of the videos has been used by a local Orkin franchise on two occasions to train a total of 55 staff at local and regional meetings. . IPM in K-12 Schools 1) IPM and Asthma Initiative : As previously described, PA IPM staff are integrally involved in the School District of Philadelphia's development and implementation of an Asthma Management Plan that includes inspection and prioritization of schools for IPM structural interventions and trainings for all faculty and staff.. Over 22.7% of the students overall are diagnosed with asthma, with much higher rates in specific schools. Two school IPM Environmental Assessments are complete and 4 additional assessments are planned for the fall in Allegheny County and Philadelphia County. Impacts 154,000 students, 9,621 teachers, and over 20,000 other employees in 360 buildings, 65% of which are over 50 years old. 2) National Healthy Schools Day (4/7/15), PA IPM provided a webinar for Women for a Healthy Environment entitled "Safer Pest Management in Schools: Live, Mice, Bed Bugs and Beyond!") attended by 32 people and archived at http://services.choruscall.com/links/wfahe150407.html Evaluation results show that 90% of participants "learned a great deal", the remaining 10% learned "a lot". 3 ) PA Green & Healthy Schools Partnership : PA IPM staff participates in this statewide partnership in collaboration with EPA, PA Dept of Education, PA Dept of Health and others. We serve on the Health and Wellness Committee and provide input about inclusion of accurate and achievable IPM policies and practices as part of healthy school efforts. During this period our staff met/conference called 10 times with either a subcommittee or the full group. IPM on College/University Campus During this project period, PA IPM Program staff continued to meet bi-weekly with the Penn State University Environmental Health and Safety's (EHS) IPM Subcommittee. The committee includes the EHS director, key directors of housing, food service, buildings, operations and pest control contractor. The committee's purpose is to increase the implementation of IPM on campus buildings and grounds while effectively eliminating pests with least risk to campus human populations. 1) LEED Standards for IPM in Buildings . Completed top tier IPM Plan for University Park Campus in April 2015 in accordance with LEED Certification Standards for buildings, including specified restrictions on pesticide use in favor of least toxic products if needed. Impacts 61,168 faculty & staff in 933 buildings. IPM Curriculum (k-12) IPM for Food Service 380 reached in 3 sessions Bed bugs for Primary Care Providers: What YOU Need to Know a) in person training 35 in 1 session b) via webinar 135 (archived on NNCC and PA IPM websites)** Bed bugs for Social Workers 256 in 5 sessions IPM for Libraries 26 in 1 session IPM for School Nurses 23 in 1 session IPM for Master Gardeners 155 in 5 sessions Total 1010 people in 12 sessions **http://extension.psu.edu/pests/ipm/community/training-presentations/bed-bug-presentations https://vimeo.com/123065333 http://www.chpfs.org/chpfs/index.php/resources/archived-trainings This webinar has 115 Vimeo views to date and 46 people got CEUs from it. Agronomic Crop IPM extension program ? -Our black cutworm trapping network identified across Pennsylvania 10 significant flights of black cutworm moths. As a result, we notified growers that their corn crops were at a higher risk of cutting damage from black cutworm caterpillars. This widespread warning, which we distributed via email newsletters and farm media outlets, gave growers an early warning to get out an scout their crop fields for cutworm populations, rather than spraying fields indiscriminately for this sporadic pest species. -We have also established a western bean cutworm trapping network that is currently capturing moths. We will use these data to inform growers the risk this newer pest species poses to their corn fields. -To understand the risk posed to soybean fields by early season secondary pests and the associated value of neonicotinoid seed treatments, we scouted 24 soybean fields (half that were planted with neonicotinoid seed treatments, half we planted without these seed treatments). We found very few pest species (<less than ten individual insects) even in untreated fields, suggesting that neonicotinoid seed treatments are being deployed against mostly weak and non-economic pest populations.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Naworaj Acharya, Rebecca A. Seliga, Edwin G. Rajotte, Nina E. Jenkins, Matthew B. Thomas: Persistence and efficacy of a Beauveria bassiana biopesticide against the house fly, Musca domestica , on typical structural substrates of poultry houses. Biocontrol Science and Technology 01/2015; 25(6):1-41. DOI:10.1080/09583157.2015.1009872


Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/14

Outputs
Target Audience: PA IPM Collaborations: The Pennsylvania Statewide IPM Advisory Committee is commissioned by the Secretary of Agriculture to advise us on policy and program priorities. The College of Agricultural Sciences IPM Advisory Committee consists of faculty representing college departments. The Philadelphia School and Community IPM Partnership is comprised of over 400 individuals representing health professionals, community and faith-based groups, city agencies, and a diversity of non-profit organizations. PSCIP has brought in over $1 million in grants. With our programs we have reached over 2,000 Philadelphia agency staff, outreach, school and Health professionals and over 25,000 Philadelphia residents (youth and adults, English and Spanish speaking) over the last ten years. Service by PA IPM to other committees The NRCS State Technical Committee advises NRCS about state conservation needs. The Penn State Metro Advisory Committee advises the College of Agricultural Sciences about implementing its new focus on urban issues. The Pesticide Education Advisory Committee advises that program's activities concerning pesticide safety education. In Pennsylvania PA IPM provides programming for: Agronomic crop growers Vegetable growers Underserved communities in Philadelphia Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Twenty-five Penn State extension educators managed traps and reported results, providing them first-hand experience in monitoring pest populations and understanding connections between pest populations and in-field damage. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? See accomplishment section above for publication lists as well as: • Discussed IPM and understanding local pest populations at 17 winter extension meetings reaching 1100 farmers and associated agricultural professionals What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Continue activities as described above as well as: • Will implement IPM in on-farm research projects and share the results with growers.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Goal 1: • PAIPM web site reorganized to fit the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences format • Produced more than 25 press releases including: Child care training with PA IPM Latino health fairs part of PA IPM outreach Kids learn about bugs with PA IPM PA IPM awarded grants to educate Latinos about IPM Summertime means deep cleaning, why go green? Soybean project scouts for disease and insects May is Asthma Awareness Month – Do You Know Your Triggers? Penn State Partnership Stimulates New Pest Technology Business in South Asia Penn State's Great Insect Fair celebrates 21th year Updated Pest Fact Sheets Now Available Training Modules Provide IPM Tips for Child Care and Early Learning Environments New Heat Treatment Program Battles Invasive Species Using Less Pesticides on Sweet Corn with Biocontrols Training Modules for Child Cares Now Online Online Child Care Training in Demand Penn State Entomologist Talks Global Pesticide Use on NPR Trainings in Spanish for Mushroom Growers New Partnership to Educate Latino Community in Philadelphia International degree program spawns graduate student seminars IPM for Multi-family Housing Online Training Researchers Make Movies to Get a Jump on Bed Bugs Pesticide Mixtures have Damaging Affects on Bees Creating Healthy Environments in the Latino Community • Produced 4 quarterly news letters •Produced fact sheets including: Asthma, Pests and Pesticides Got Ants? Got Bed Bugs? Got Pest Problems? Got Roaches? Got Head Lice? Got Ants? Is There a Mouse in the House? Community Approach to Managing Pests in Homes and Schools • Maintained Twitter, Listserv and Blog. Audiences grew for each social media type. • Developed new stakeholder group, Hispanic mushroom growers. Done with the support of NEIPM Partnership grants. • Represented PAIPM at the national level by co-organizing National IPM Committee Conference • Working the Pennsylvania NRCS to expand conservation payments for IPM practice adoption, pollinator conservation and specialty crop programs. • Leveraged more than $300,000 in grant funds to support PAIPM effort. Grants from USEPA, USDA/SCRI block grants, HUD Healthy Homes, etc. • Continue to support web-based IPM advice through PAPipe. • Developed a Barley Yellow Dwarf decision support system (leveraged funds from USDA/NIFA) Goal 2: Agronomy • Ran statewide trapping networks for black cutworm and western bean cutworm to emphasize the importance of understanding local pest populations for implementing IPM Specialty Crops • Continued support for greenhouse specialty crop producers • Continuing education for the plain community (Amish/Mennonite) • Developed extension educaiton for corn earworm management in sweet corn (leveraged SCRI block grant funds. • Developed education program and web site for conservation of native pollinators (leveraged funds from USDA/NIFA) IPM in Schools • Continued to work with PA schools to adopt IPM practices (leverage PA Dept of Agriculture funding) •Produced monthly newsletters, 'School IPM News' Public Health • Produced biannual news letters on IPM and public health for underserved audiences in Philadelphia (PSCIP News) IPM in Housing • Partnered with HUD/Healthy Housing to provide IPM training to both Pennsylvania low income housing managers and residents and daycare centers. In addition our personnel traveled to DC, Maryland and other states to provide training including Native American populations in Montana. Wide Area Pest Monitoriing • Maintained web-based Potato and Tomato blight warning systems • Collaborated with regional powdery mildew warning system Service to Hispanic community • Maintained IPM education program for Hispanic daycare centers (leveraged NEIPM funding) • Developed Hispanic mushroom growers stakeholder group (leveraged NEIPM funding)

Publications