School IPM Benchmark Pilot Program, Brevard County
What is it and what did we do?
The long-term goal of the Florida School IPM program is to reduce the risk of pests and unnecessary pesticide use for 1 million children in 5 years. In order to accomplish this goal, our first objective is to develop verifiable IPM programs in select counties based on the Monroe model. The Monroe model has been effective in school districts of 25 or less, but has not been tested on school districts the size of Brevard, which contains 81 public schools. We propose to demonstrate that the Brevard model will result in verifiable IPM for all district schools. We predict that Brevard model will be sustainable because IPM tactics such as physical exclusion and sanitation have been incorporating into the existing duty matrix of maintenance personnel.
What was the outcome?
Our pilot program is complete with our best school reducing pesticide use by 65%. Another goal for the expansion in Brevard is to maintain about a 50% reduction in pests and pesticides, while saving the district in time and money for pest control. We predict this goal will be reached since the Monroe model has demonstrated 90% reduction in other programs in 7 states and 3 Indian Reservations in schools less compliant to IPM than Brevard. Cost analyses for the expansion phase proposed here will be critical since Brevard has overhauled their maintenance management to incorporate IPM tactics into their duty matrix.
The
people that made this happen include:
- Dr. Faith Oi, Assistant Extension Scientist, Entomology
- Sally Scalera, Horticulture Agent, Brevard Co
- Dr. Rebecca Baldwin, School IPM, Entomology