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Project Ideas:
Green-Blue Grants Program for IPM and Water Quality
Clean Water through Residential IPM
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The Northeastern IPM Center is launching the Green-Blue Grants Program
to promote clean water through residential integrated pest management (IPM).
We will fund projects focused on educating residents of the Northeast on how
using IPM in residential structures* and landscapes can affect water quality.
This education could take place through workshops, promotional materials, and
other methods. Project ideas should tie to the following comments and suggestions
made by participants in the “Green-Blue Summit,” July 18–19, 2007. Proposals
might involve developing specific messages, testing selected messages with consumer
focus groups, or disseminating messages in various venues. For details on how
to apply, see the RFA at NortheastIPM.org/greenbluesummit.cfm.
Areas of Greatest Need or Opportunity for Educating Residents about
Managing Pests
- Encourage consumers to follow pest management and product recommendations.
- Educate consumers about the use of IPM thresholds, and encourage them to
wait until thresholds are reached before acting.
- Packaging affects homeowner behavior (a large container, or a concentrate,
may encourage overuse), so encourage consumers to buy small quantities of
ready-to-use formulations, based on this year’s problems.
- Lawn care efforts (and purchases) tend to be greatest in the spring, so
target education during that season –– even to provide information about management
that will occur during summer and fall.
- Make clear the connection between pest management and public health, especially
children’s health.
- Educate consumers about managing pests by choosing reduced-risk preventative
materials rather than rescue products.
Potential Messages Related to Turf Management
- Educate consumers about proper site and plant selection (“right plant,
right place”). Many lawn problems are due to the wrong grass for the site,
or a poor growing environment (light, moisture, soil).
- Describe products for sale: seed, sod, and landscaper products. Provide
guidance as to whether turf replacement is the best choice environmentally
and economically for the long-term.
- Encourage consumers to weigh environmental impact along with aesthetics.
Consumers may be to be willing to accept some weeds (e.g., more in the back
yard than in the front) and can address some issues using spot treatments.
- Promote good mowing practices to benefit lawns and water quality (3"
mowing height; leaving clippings on the lawn to recycle nutrients and prevent
pesticide transport). (Possible message: “Your lawn, our environment.”)
- Raise awareness about “hardscapes” (driveway, front sidewalk, entry, etc.)
because these areas can be most likely to impact water quality. For example,
highlight the importance of keeping sprays and granules off impervious surfaces
(e.g., use spreaders with side guards; sweep granules back onto the lawn and
control drift).
Teaching Consumers to Connect Their Behavior with Water Quality
- Emphasize importance of timing pesticide and nutrient applications. Avoid
application before it rains (the greatest risk of pesticide transport to water
occurs during the first rain event). Nonetheless, water-in products if directed
by the label.
- Highlight importance of organic matter in soil to hold pesticides and nutrients,
preventing them from entering water sources.
- Educate lawncare operators and homeowners about planting and maintaining
buffer strips near water bodies, edges of property, and impervious surfaces.
- Pesticides enter storm sewers; most communities don’t send storm drainage
to treatment plants. Message: “Every curb is a shoreline” or “All property
is lakefront property.”
- Raise homeowner awareness that some professional lawn care services can
provide IPM expertise. Such services could involve assessing pest situations
(not only applying chemicals), using spot treatments rather than whole-lawn
applications, and ensuring that granules stay on lawn rather than walkways.
Potential Outreach Approaches and Venues
- Extension educators could work with retail shops to train consumers.
- Retailers and manufacturers could have a role in educating consumers. For
example, home and garden center staff could go through a training process
because they make recommendations. Selecting retailers with good employee
retention rates may allow training to go further.
- Design a plan for retailers explaining how they would market products in
IPM-related groupings (e.g., put caulking near mouse pellets).
- Education might involve kiosks at stores such as Home Depot or Walmart,
or a product supplement attached to the rack (such as a DVD or an information
sheet, possibly in different languages).
- Give consumers a voucher, rebate, or coupons for participating in a training.
- Survey homeowners to find education gaps, then focus educational programs
on that. Use staff or consultants in box stores as a point for identifying
the problem that might be happening.
- Consider differences between urban/suburban audiences, and where/how they
get information.
- Utilize public service announcements or commercials (e.g., demonstrating
the effects of pest control products being disposed of improperly, or explaining
connections between pest management choices and family health).
- Conduct outreach in schools. For example, change academic standards so
that IPM is taught (PA has changed standards of learning so it’s in the curriculum
K-12).
- Partner with other organizations that may have overlapping interests related
to the effects of pests and pest control products. For example, specific health
organizations (American Lung Association); insurance companies; hazardous
waste facilities; Nat’l Pest Management Association; Nat’l Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health’s Agricultural Health and Safety Centers (Cooperstown, NY).
Educating Professionals
- Pest management professionals need to be trained in situations that can
profoundly affect drinking water, such as wells siphoning water, contaminating
aquifers.
- Many commercial operations have a very small number of clients and little
access to education or training on lawn care. But training such applicators
on IPM, scouting, and spot treatments may be easier than reaching DIY homeowners.
They also have an economic incentive not to waste chemicals.
- For education of lawn care professionals, digest the basics into a portable
reference (e.g., pocket cards); use buddy training systems. Use hands-on training
for front-line employees, who can pass it on to consumers (e.g., why herbicides
don’t work in the cold). They can at least provide homeowner education about
watering and mowing.
- Seek preventative pest-proofing in construction.
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