Pests at the Perimeter conference registration open

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Many of our common school pests start outdoors and then make their way in.

Cornell Integrated Pest Management (Cornell IPM) will host its annual conference, “Pests at the Perimeter: How Outdoor Landscape Design Influences Indoor Pest Intrusion,” Tuesday, June 17 from 9 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Palisades Mall in West Nyack (Rockland County) and online via Zoom.

A concrete slab bordered by a brick wall on one side and a green bush on the other with a pile of gravel on the edge of the slab.

Learn how landscaping can encourage or discourage pests.

“Many of us think of the of the outdoors as wholly separate from our indoor spaces,” said Conference Chair Matt Frye, Ph.D., a rodent and structural pest expert with Cornell IPM. “But how we manage our landscapes can directly impact the pests that enter our homes.” And schools.

Frye will share tips for keeping crawling pests including spiders and rodents from our indoor spaces during the event, which will also include keynote presentation, “Designing and Installing Landscapes that Minimize Pests,” by Barb Neal.

Neal, a retired horticulture and agriculture educator from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tioga County, will offer strategies for landscaping that enhances outdoor spaces while preventing unwanted pests.

Additional presentations on slowing weed growth, preventing flying insects and wildlife from entering homes, avoiding perimeter ants, reducing mosquitos, ticks and yellowjackets and attracting beneficial insects will be offered by Cornell IPM experts during the event.

Attendees are eligible to receive New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Pesticide Training Course Credits and Certified Nursery and Landscape Professional Credits. For more information about the credits being offered or to register for the conference, visit the event listing on our website.

The cost of the conference is $25.

Investing in IPM – Pest Proof Food Storage

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“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” – Benjamin Franklin

When thinking of preventing pests, getting rid of what they eat often tops the list of recommendations. Mice, roaches, and ants will find and consume any available food, including things we might not consider to be food such as glue, soaps, and their dead brethren. We’ve written about addressing food availability in the past. There is, however, a food adjacent issue that also needs to be considered. Written for homeowners, the article, This 1 Common Household Item Actually  Attracts Cockroaches, is probably even more relevant to schools. (Spoiler: it’s cardboard.)

Cardboard stack isolated on white background

There is plenty of room for cockroaches within those nooks and crannies.

Consider the amount of items delivered to schools in corrugated cardboard. As Rodent and Structural Pest Management Coordinator Matt Frye points out, there is more than enough space for German cockroaches to hide within those ridged openings. If those boxes smell like food, they are even more attractive. And, alas, there is nothing you can do to prevent cockroach occupied boxes from being delivered.

In addition to corrugated cardboard serving as a cockroach delivery system, inside your building it can also serve as nesting material for rodents. To prevent providing resources to these pests, the IPM solution is to:

various food items stored in clear plastic totes on shelving

Don’t feed the pests! Place food in pest proof containers and get the cardboard out of the kitchen.

  • Remove items from cardboard boxes
  • Move food into pest proof containers
  • Break those boxes down and place them in pest proof recycling bins as soon as possible

We recognize that purchasing pest proof containers and recycling bins is an investment, but it is one that will pay for itself in less food loss and contamination and fewer pest complaints in the future.

For more information about cockroaches, visit our What’s Bugging You? Cockroaches page. You can find more information about IPM in your schools at the Cornell IPM Schools and Daycare Centers webpage, Indoor Best Practices for Food Service and Best Management Practices for Classrooms, Offices, Staff Lounges, and Hallways.

Investing in IPM – Hiring an IPM professional

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“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” –Phil Jackson

Over the decades, we have seen the number of school districts with a certified pesticide applicator on staff decline leading to more schools contracting out their school pest management needs. A significant benefit of certification is the initial training and continuous education required to maintain the license. Without that regular training, an unintended consequence is that school districts have less ability to knowledgably handle pest issues, leaving administrators susceptible to contractor sales pitches. Requirements to hire the lowest bidder can also compromise the long-term efficacy of a school’s IPM program.

Some specific school recommendations for hiring the right contractor to join your team include:

  • Invest in staff training to work with the contracted pest management professional
  • Include IPM expectations in bid requests
  • Only consider qualified bids which include those expectations
  • Responsibilities must be clear and in contracts

While developed for a homeowner audience, Dr. Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann’s presentation on hiring a pest management professional is a useful guide for finding the right member to join your pest management team.

Additional recommendations for finding a reliable pest management company include:

  • They must be licensed by NYSDEC and insured.
  • They should be a member of a professional organization like the National Pest Management Association.
  • They should know the appropriate state laws specific to schools.
  • They know and use integrated pest management.
  • Their online reviews are positive and trustworthy.
  • Their representatives LISTEN to your concerns and work with you.
  • They are willing to try low-risk strategies (such as heat, steam, vacuum) if you desire.
  • They propose plan for eradication, not just management.
  • They are willing and able to exclude pests by making small repairs.

Bottom line: If the contractor is not solving the problem, it is a waste of funds. So be sure that your potential new team member understands the assignment before signing the contract.

For more information about safe and effective ways to manage the pests that infest our schools, damage our landscapes, contaminate our food and living spaces, and pose risks to human health, visit our Community IPM website.

Investing in IPM – Education (Spring 2025 Opportunities)

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“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” –  Benjamin Franklin

Establishing an Integrated pest management (IPM) program for your school buildings and grounds protects people from pests and pesticides and protects the quality of the buildings and grounds.

6 slices of swiss cheese stand up next to each other with green lines going through some of the cheese holes

The Swiss cheese model illustrates that no one method  will guarantee success.

There is no one strategy that will fix pest problems. IPM means employing multiple strategies to provide the results you are looking for. Strategies include identifying what pest you are dealing with and where they are, where they are coming from, and what they are after. Only then can you make a plan and choose specific tactics to deal with the issue. Educating yourself and staff to answer these questions and develop and implement a plan is a key IPM strategy.

To help, here is a list of some upcoming learning opportunities:

NYS School Environmental Health Program April Chat: Stinging Insects on School Grounds

April 23, 2025, 10:00 AM, Virtual

Come join Cornell IPM’s Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann for a half hour discussion-based session on stinging insects on school grounds and how to manage them.

The chats are informal half hour conversations led by a subject matter expert to answer any questions and share resources about that month’s topic. Come prepared with your questions and feel free to share your experiences!

Mastering Rodent Exclusion

April 23, 2025, 1:00 PM, Virtual – RECORDING LINK

In a webinar sponsored by Xcluder, rodent control expert Matt Frye will discuss the critical role exclusion plays in preventing pest problems and improving pest management strategies. Frye will delve into the biology and behavior of mice and rats, providing a foundational understanding of where and when to implement exclusion tactics. He’ll discuss the importance of viewing structures from a rodent’s perspective and how this can help identify rodent-vulnerable areas. Frye also will review products and technology PMPs can deploy for their exclusion services.

What’s Bugging You? Webinars

First Friday of each month, 12 PM – 12:30 PM, virtual

various food items stored in clear plastic notes

Don’t feed the rodents! Place food in pest proof containers.

Experts share practical information and answer questions on using integrated pest management (IPM) to avoid pest problems and promote a healthy environment where you live, work, learn and play. We’ll end with an IPM Minute, and cover a specific action you can take in the next few days to help you avoid pest problems.

  • May 2: Spongy Moth Caterpillar Management + Feeding Friendly Insects: Plan to Prep Your Soil
  • June 6: Spotted Lanternfly Update + Recognizing Wild Parsnip
  • July 4: Grow Green Lawns With Overseeding + Beech Leaf Disease
  • August 1: Making A Mosquito Bucket Trap + Feeding Friendly Insects: Pick Plants
  • September 5: Top 5 Rodent Exclusion Tips + Feeding Friendly Insects: Get Ready to Plant
  • October 3: Winterize Your Home Orchard + Feeding Friendly Insects: Fall is for Planting
  • November 1: Understanding Indoor Cockroaches + Invasive Tawney Field Cockroach
  • December 5: IPM For Clothes Moths And Pantry Moths

Pests at the Perimeter – How Landscape Design Influences Indoor Pest Intrusion

June 17, 2015, 9 AM – 4 PM, Palisades Center, West Nyack, NY

The New York State Integrated Pest Management Program hosts an annual conference to address pest issues plaguing New Yorkers. The 2025 conference will focus on how landscape composition and management around buildings influences the intrusion of pests. Learn what IPM strategies can be used to prevent and mitigate those pests.

More information coming soon.

For other New York State Integrated Pest Management events, click here.

EPA Webinar: Excluding Pests from Schools – September 22

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We’re proud to pass along this announcement from the EPA regarding their upcoming webinar.

Excluding Pests from Schools

photo looking up towards the top of the side of a beige building composed of windows against a blue sky. Blinds are visiible in the window on the bottom right of the photo.

Wherever children go, pests follow – even back to school. Pests know where the goodies can be found and they strive to find a way into the building – under doors, through cracks in masonry, in gaps around pipes and wires – they find a way. Pest issues are universal – from rural to urban schools and all types of neighborhoods in-between. The best way to defeat them in their quest to inhabit your schools is to exclude them from entering the school buildings in the first place. NYSIPM’s Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann and Matt Frye will help you to identify the most likely places of entry in your buildings and the surest way to seal them out.

Attend this free webinar to learn where pests are entering schools and how to keep them out.

Sept. 22 | 2-3:30 p.m. EDT | Followed by a 30-minute Q&A

Register Now

Learning Objectives

  • Learn which pests are of concern in schools and how they are entering.
  • Learn how to exclude common ground-level pests, such as rodents and crawling arthropods, and effective integrated pest management strategies to reduce these pests.
  • Learn how to exclude common flying pests such as bats, flies and stinging insects, and the role of monitoring and trapping.

Presenters

NYS IPM Program’s own:

Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann, Ph.D. Community IPM Coordinator

Matthew Frye, Ph.D. Community IPM Extension Area Educator

 

 

 

 

 

EPA’s Upcoming IPM 2022-2023 Webinar Series

New season, new topics. Review the types of IPM issues we will cover over the next year in our 2022-2023 webinar series. Mark your calendars now.