- Author: Cheryl Reynolds
School is already back in session for many children in districts throughout California, and several others will be starting back to school in the next couple of weeks. While students and teachers were enjoying summer break, an amendment to the Healthy Schools Act (HSA) went into effect on July 1st. It requires teachers, custodians, administrators, other staff or volunteers, and licensed pest management professionals applying any pesticide (this includes disinfectants and antimicrobials) at a school site to take an annual training course covering school integrated pest management (IPM). The training course must be approved by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR).
An online course, Providing Integrated Pest Management Services in Schools and Child Care Settings, developed by the UC Statewide IPM Program and the Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health (CERCH), has recently been approved by DPR to satisfy the annual training requirement of the HSA. Although this course was designed for licensed pest management professionals, anyone applying any type of pesticide in schools or child care centers will benefit from the course.
IPM is a strategy that focuses on long-term prevention of pests through a combination of techniques such as monitoring for pest presence, cleaning up food sources, sealing up cracks, and excluding pests with screens. Effective pesticides that pose the least possible hazard and that minimize harm to people, property, and the environment are used only after careful monitoring indicates they are needed.
Prior to July 1st, schools were already required to do the following:
- Designate an IPM coordinator at the school or district level to make sure the requirements of the HSA are met
- Create an IPM plan
- Provide annual written notification to all parents and staff of pesticide products intended for use at the school site during the year and allow the opportunity for them to be notified before certain applications
- Post warning signs where certain pesticides are applied
- Keep records of pesticide applications
- Send pesticide use reports to DPR annually
Some pesticide products are exempt from the IPM plan, notification, posting, recordkeeping, and reporting* requirements of the HSA at school sites. These are reduced-risk pesticide products, and their use is encouraged at schools if pesticides are deemed necessary. These include:
- Self-contained baits or traps
- Gels or pastes used indoors in cracks and crevices
- Antimicrobials, including sanitizers and disinfectants
- Pesticides exempt from registration, such as food grade oils
However, these products are NOT exempt from the Healthy Schools Act annual training requirement that went into effect July 1st. Anyone who uses these products—a licensed professional, school staff or child care staff—is still required to take the HSA annual training course.
To satisfy this annual training requirement, take the free UC IPM online course by visiting the UC IPM online training webpage. For more on school and child care IPM and other courses that satisfy the Healthy Schools Act training requirement, visit the DPR website.
*Licensed pest management professionals hired to apply pesticides at schools or licensed child care centers must continue to submit their regular pesticide reports of ALL registered pesticides to DPR annually and to the county monthly.
/span>- Author: Edward Walbolt
Chicken manure compost is an environmentally friendly and effective organic garden fertilizer. I use chicken manure to amend my soil and add usable nutrients to it at the start of the planting season. As a vegetable gardener, I treat my soil with plenty of chicken manure compost before I plant my crop in order to help provide a good start to the garden. I turn lots of chicken manure into the soil before I place my starters. After I have all the plants in the ground I add a thin layer of chicken manure to top my soil as well. I notice that applying in this fashion allows for extended release of the nutrients. In comparison with chemical fertilizers, manure is more cost effective and can be purchased inexpensively almost everywhere. Chicken manure is most preferred over steer or rabbit manure for its well rounded nutrient spectrum after it has composted and been prepared for garden use. Chicken manure is the richest variety containing the highest N-P-K ratios in comparison with other farm animal manures. Chicken manure subjectively seems to have the least amount of “odor” when compared to the other varieties making it more desirable to work with, if you will. An important tip, gardeners should only use manure that has already been composted for garden use. If the manure is not broken down and composted before use there is a very strong nitrogen content that will “burn” and can potentially damage or destroy your plants. Garden variety chicken manure is sold at all the home improvement retailers and has been composted and is ready for you to use immediately. Chicken manure will be the reason you are almost certain to have someone caught noticing your well-grown garden while asking you, “do you smell that?”