In sufficient numbers, Canada geese can become nuisance pests or even health and safety risks, but a multi-pronged IPM approach—including some common-sense steps everybody can follow—can greatly reduce their presence and impact.

Through a subaward from the Northeastern IPM Center’s StopPests in Housing Program, a University of Minnesota entomologist studied the local public housing agency’s pest-management practices and devised a few simple recommendations for improving pest control in multifamily housing.

By consuming carrion, turkey vultures play a vital role in the ecosystem. They recycle organic matter and reduce the spread of pathogens by removing carcasses and outcompeting disease-vector pests, and their actions yield some surprising environmental benefits, as well.

Agriculture takes place as part of a complex system of connections and interdependencies with its surroundings. Landscape composition and configuration can greatly influence the abundance and diversity of herbivores, pollinators, and natural enemies of crop pests.

Although it can sometimes be transmitted to mammals—occasionally including humans—avian influenza primarily impacts bird health and mortality, which in turns creates economic challenges for poultry farmers. Biosecurity is a critical IPM approach for limiting this pathogen’s spread and impacts.

The regional IPM centers recently released several diversity-focused funding opportunities with a goal of making diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) both essential and commonplace within the IPM community.

The Northeastern IPM Center has opened its annual request for applications (RFA) for funding through two grant programs: the IPM Partnership Grants Program and the Pest Management Strategic Plans (PMSPs) and Production/Management Profiles (PMPs) Grants Program. Applications for both are due by November 9, 2023.

The New York State Tick Blitz Program leverages community-based science to bolster researchers’ tick surveillance bandwidth, particularly in response to emerging threats from invasive or range-shifting tick species carrying novel pathogens.

The Northeastern IPM Center has funded a number of tick-related projects through our grant programs. Recent projects include a production/management profile for arthropod pests of horses in Maine, and a digital-media tick-bite prevention campaign aimed at developing and deploying just-in-time learning tools.

Weeds of the Northeast, a comprehensive identification guide that has sold nearly 100,000 copies since it was first published in 1997, was recently updated with a second edition. The creation of the new edition hinges upon an extraordinary coincidence. You could call it a tale of two DiTommasos. Or, more accurately, a DiTommaso and a DiTomaso.

John Tooker, a professor of entomology and extension specialist at The Pennsylvania State University, took over as Pennsylvania state IPM coordinator in late 2022. He spoke with us about his responsibilities, interests, priorities, and goals for the program.

The Northeastern IPM Center has opened nominations for the 2023 Outstanding Achievements in IPM Award, which recognizes professionals and students based on their efforts and accomplishments in IPM. Nominations are due by Friday, October 27, 2023.

An updated pest alert on ticks and tick-borne diseases is now available, courtesy of the North Central IPM Center, and containing information on tick life cycles, tick-species ranges and identification guides, disease symptoms and prevention, and proper, effective removal of attached ticks. It is available online, with free printed copies available upon request.

A recent paper by the Northeastern IPM Center, published in the Journal of IPM, examined IPM adoption in the U.S. in terms of drivers and barriers, identifying both successes and opportunities for improvement.

This year, five projects that advance IPM in the Northeast have received funding through the Center’s annual competitive grants program.

Last fall, the Center hosted a series of popular DEIJ-focused webinars as part of a new Diversity in IPM initiative, and more are scheduled for this spring. The Center’s StopPests in Housing Program also has new webinars coming up.