Philadelphia Partnership Addresses Urban Pest Problems

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA, October 23, 2010 (Press-News.org) Concerned citizens, school and childcare staff, city and federal agencies will meet to discuss urban pest problems, such as bed bugs, cockroaches and mice, the health issues related to these pests, and how to safely solve pest problems. The group is coming together as part of the Philadelphia School and Community Integrated Pest Management Partnership (PSCIP) on its seventh annual meeting on October 27, 10 a.m. to 3p.m., at Concilio (Council of Spanish Speaking Organizations, Inc.) at 705-09 N. Franklin Street, Philadelphia.

The annual meeting will focus on educational opportunities for all attendees via three workshops. The first will focus on healthy indoor environments and integrated pest management (IPM). It will include presentations on indoor air quality for homes and schools, Penn State's Better Kid Care program, and pest management protocols in childcare and school settings. The group will discuss the role of home health professionals in spreading information on safe and effective pest management and local and national resources available to address IPM in multi-family housing.

The second session will address the topic of IPM training and green job skills development. It will feature a presentation from the IPM Job Skills Training Team and their work with Resources for Human Development, Partnership for Employment Program in Philadelphia. Employers, and their newly trained employees who benefited from this program, will be in attendance to discuss their experiences and answer questions from the audience.

The final session, a Bed Bug IPM update, will feature guest speaker Jody Gangloff Kaufmann of Cornell University. She will be speaking on bed bug prevention and management in group-living facilities and shelters. Philadelphia pest management professionals will also speak and provide an update on current trends, bed bug challenges and the needs in residential settings. Pesticide education credits will be offered for Pest Management Professionals who would like to attend.

The meeting is free but registration is required. To RSVP to the meeting, contact Michelle Niedermeier, PSCIP coordinator, at the Philadelphia IPM office, (215) 471-2200, ext. 109, or e-mail pscip@psu.edu. For more information on pests, pesticides and their effects on public health, visit the PA IPM Program's Web site at http://paipm.org and click on 'Public Health'. For more information on PSCIP, including meeting minutes, partners in the initiative, and current and future activities, visit Web site http://www.pscip.org.

The Pennsylvania IPM program is a collaboration between the Pennsylvania State University and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture aimed at promoting integrated pest management in both agricultural and urban settings. For more information, contact the program at (814) 865-2839, or Web site http://www.paipm.org.