UA-Led Team Cuts Both Pesticides and Pests in Tempe School System
Thursday May 24, 2001
Jeff Harrison

A Tempe, Ariz., school district is has made an unconventional tactical maneuver in its war against bugs. Their goal: keep the pests at bay with only a fraction of the pesticides they once used. The results have been, by any account, a big success.

Like lots of other schools, the Tempe-based Kyrene School District routinely sprayed its facilities to control an assortment of pesky creatures: fire ants, cockroaches, mosquitoes and bark scorpions. Each month the pesticide treatments were repeated, but pest populations remained at what district officials considered to be unacceptable levels. More significantly, while the poisons were being applied and reapplied, children were being pulled out of school for a day or two each month by their parents to avoid pesticide exposure.

Contact Information Dawn H. Gouge UA Urban Entomologist 520-568-2273 dhgouge@ag.arizona.edu Stan Peterson Facilities Management Kyrene School District 480-783-4200

In April 2000, Kyrene tried another approach and brought in a team of specialists that included entomologists from the University of Arizona led by Dawn Gouge, an expert in urban entomology.

Stan Peterson, head of facilities management for Kyrene, said the new program initially came from Indiana University.

"The pilot program was introduced to us by (IU entomologist) Marc Lame. Marc had done a pilot study in the Midwest and wanted to try a similar program in the desert southwest and introduced us to representatives from UA," Peterson said.

UA entomologist Paul Baker was invited to the first meeting Lame organized with Kyrene administrators. Baker then brought in Gouge, and UA entomologists Kirk Smith and Carl Olson.

"We thought Lame's proposal was a winner from the start," said Gouge.

While Kyrene schools are among the newest in the state and not what anyone would consider to be havens for vermin, Peterson said the parents there nevertheless are highly sensitive to issues about pesticide use.

But he and other district officials also concluded that the costs of traditional pest control treatment were mounting. In addition to paying for their original estimates, repeated pesticide applications and administrative hours boosted the price three times over.

Three Kyrene schools (Cielo, Paloma and Pueblo) were chosen for the pilot project, called Integrated Pest Management, or IPM. The operative theory behind IPM, says Gouge, is that most pests can be successfully controlled "by combining all of our pest management tools and avoiding reliance on chemical pesticides.

"We focus on improving hygiene standards, the use of pest exclusion methods, habitat manipulation, encouraging naturally occurring biological controls and the selection of target-specific pesticides that have low mammalian toxicity and low environmental impact," Gouge said.

The IPM project focuses on how to control pests before they become a problem. That requires an understanding of why pests are there in the first place.

And at Kyrene it seemed as if trouble appeared around almost every corner. Despite what appeared to be good sanitation practices, to the bugs the schools offered veritable superhighways leading to banquet tables of insect haute cuisine: A loose seal around a water pipe; trees brushing against roof lines, a soda pop leak underneath a vending machine; decorative Indian corn displays. All wonderful opportunities for small and highly motivated creatures.

The three pilot schools concentrated their efforts (and capital resources) on identifying what the pests were, finding where they came from and denying their entry into buildings. The custodial and kitchen staffs also were mobilized to learn how to spot trouble.

All of the openings around pipes and conduits were sealed. Crawl spaces in portable classrooms-great living quarters for rodents and feral cats and their fleas, ticks and lice, as well as black widow spiders-were closed off. Drains and building slabs were repaired to inhibit cockroaches. Trees were trimmed back and birds were encouraged to roost where their droppings wouldn't contaminate walkways and other high traffic areas.

Gouge and her colleagues monitored the project using traps in various parts of the schools. She also started a "Critter Corner" report to be included in school newsletters to provide information on bug outbreaks in local areas.

Contrary to what many people think about insects, Gouge says not all bugs are pests and that broad-based applications of pesticides is not the only way to control them.

"In reality, relatively few bugs _ less than 5 percent _ should be considered pest species, and those which are can often be controlled using non-chemical management alternatives," Gouge said.

One way, she said, includes adopting better cultivation, pruning, irrigation and fertilization practices.

Biological control products introduce a disease that is specific only to the pests is another successful strategy. So is using predatory or parasitic organisms to manage pest populations.

"In this way we establish a pest management strategy that provides long-term management of pest problems with a minimum impact on human health, the environment and non-target organisms," said Gouge.

IPM programs, she added, are educationally based and focus on the biology of pests and their relationship within the environment. In short, routine pesticide spraying is often ineffective and an unnecessary hazard both for the students and the adults working in the schools.

The results of the program were impressive. The IPM midterm evaluation showed that the schools reduced their pesticide applications by 90 percent and kept pest populations below 85 percent of their original levels.

"We anticipated problems from pest control companies, and some have balked at our IPM approach, but others have embraced it and already offer excellent IPM programs to other schools in Arizona," Gouge said.

UA faculty also are currently working with the Arizona Structural Pest Control Commission on ways to provide pest control companies with certification that will recognize those that practice IPM techniques.

"The IPM program has worked very well," Peterson said, "The biggest concerns we had regarding IPM was how much more work would it be and would it work.

"We have seen a decrease in pest populations and pesticide use at all of our test sites. There has been some expense making repairs (door sweeps, caulking, etc.) But all of these repairs should have been made as a part of good maintenance anyway," he said.

Peterson said the added cost of a consultant to expand the IPM program to all Kyrene schools would likely cost less in the long run than the cost of a regular pesticide program. The IPM program has been implemented district-wide this summer.

"I was surprised by the assessments. It almost seemed too easy. Less bugs and less pesticide is great for everyone," Peterson said.

Gouge said IPM also affords teachers a chance to introduce their students to the fascinating world of environmental biology, as well as developing life skills such as teamwork, organizational skills and planning.

"We hope that the kids will also take their new-found philosophy home with them and encourage their parents to adopt IPM practices there also." she said.

"I think our IPM model will expand statewide within schools and also be adopted by other institutions (such as) child care centers, municipal parks and buildings, hospitals, etc. We are hoping to start another pilot program in the Navajo Nation this fall."