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Colorado Coalition for School IPM Newsletter | January 2017
CCSIPM Spotlight:
Douglas County District
Inside this issue: Featured School: Douglas County
School District
Pest of the Month: Cluster Flies
Possible Funding Source
Current Pest Sightings
Colorado Coalition for
School IPM Newsletter
January 2017
fact, I knew it would not succeed unless I found a few
champions to help me.
A “champion” is a person who takes extraordinary
interest in the adoption, implementation, and success
of a program*. A champion is someone with whom
you can educate, empower, and most importantly
collaborate with. I needed a few champions and I
knew where to find them.
In Douglas County School District, we have a
position that is the pivot point for all things facility
related - they are called Building Engineers. Many
other districts have them as well, but in DCSD, they
are the gatekeepers to the building. If something is
being fixed, replaced, maintained, cleaned, or
otherwise impacted, they know. They act as liaisons
between district personnel and their own building
staff of teachers, administrators, nutrition folks, and
custodians. In most cases they care for their building
as if it were their own house, always going to great
lengths to make sure that every detail is correct.
I knew these people would be my champions and
for good reason. They were my eyes and ears at the
school, always looking, always listening. If a pest was
sighted they would soon know and take action.
Likewise, if they identified opportunities for
improvement such as unsealed food being kept in
classrooms and offices, they could take the
appropriate steps to educate those around them.
Because we needed these individuals on our side,
we decided to start with them. For a program as large
as IPM, we brought all the building engineers in for a
comprehensive training course (3 in fact), complete
with hands-on experience. Thankfully, our regional
experts were happy to participate, so the training was
put on by folks like Clyde Wilson, Deb Young (one of
the last courses she taught), Kent Holle, and Jonathan
Handy. We were very lucky to get their expertise.
Only because we got our building engineers
involved early do I feel that IPM was a success (at
least so far). If you find the task daunting to
implement IPM district wide (or any multi-faceted
program), just find your champion.
*http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/champion.html
Integrated Pest Management: Finding Your
Champion
By Zach Nannestad, Environmental Health Manager,
Douglas County School District
Before IPM was introduced in its full
extent to Douglas County School
District, dealing with Pests was less of a
process and more of a practice in
repetition. A repetition of pest sightings,
a repetition of phone calls and meager response, a
repetition of not knowing what or how pest control
companies were “managing” these pests. And worst of
all, repetition of doing it all again every week/month,
because very little actions were taken to break the
cycle.
In spring of 2015, pest management was thrown
under the purview of Environmental Health for
Douglas County District. Terms like IPM were thrown
around a lot, but very little attention was paid to the
actual details of IPM and when I saw how pest control
was handled, I knew a lot of things had to change.
As I immersed myself into the world of IPM, I
discovered that this is not a program to be taken
lightly. This was not going to be an easy switch for my
district to take on. So many factors play a role and no
two situations are the same. This was not going to take
a one size fits all approach.
As taxing as an IPM program might be, I knew it
was the right step. I knew I could not do it alone, in
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Colorado Coalition for School IPM Newsletter | January 2017
Current Pests:
What Are You Seeing?
Statewide
Fungus gnats (observed
around windows and near
soil of potted plants)
Boxelder bugs (active inside
buildings)
Carpet beetles (adults
emerge inside buildings)
Cluster flies (active in buildings -
see photo in left-hand column)
Fruit flies (presence likely due to
overripe fruit)
Firewood insects (emerge inside
buildings if firewood is brought
in)
Arapahoe, Douglas, & Elbert
Counties
Indian meal moths (adults fly
around buildings)
Eastern Plains Counties
Conifer seed bugs (active inside buildings)
Winged termites (may begin to emerge and swarm)
Ants (Formica sp. field ants may forage in buildings
for sweet materials)
El Paso & Teller Counties
Multicolored Asian lady beetles (active inside
buildings)
Root weevils (active inside buildings)
High Country Areas
Conifer seed bugs (active inside buildings)
Pueblo & Fremont Counties
Winged termites (may begin to emerge and swarm)
Ants (Formica sp. field ants may forage in buildings
for sweet materials)
Southwestern Counties
Conifer seed bugs (active inside buildings)
Swallow bugs (overwintered bugs become active in
anticipation of returning migrant birds and can bite
humans)
Tri-River Counties
Conifer seed bugs (active inside buildings)
Ants (Formica sp. field ants may forage in buildings
for sweet materials)
Winged termites (may begin to emerge and swarm)
Root weevils (overwintered adults become active in
and around buildings)
Lacewings (overwintered adults become active in
and around buildings)
Darkwinged fungus gnat
Featured Indoor Pest of the Month:
Cluster Flies
By Whitney Cranshaw, CSU Professor &
Extension Specialist
It is the middle of winter.
Everything outside is frozen and
plants are dormant, but flies are
still being found in homes and
buildings, flying about lazily in the
rooms during warm days. These
are probably cluster flies.
During spring and summer, cluster flies live
outdoors and the immature stages of these flies
develop feeding on earthworms. In late summer and
early fall, the adult flies seek sheltered areas where
they will survive through winter. Often, cluster flies
will use cavities behind
walls and other areas of
buildings as sites to
hunker down through
the winter months.
Migration to these
overwintering sites
often begins by Labor
Day, and cluster flies
can be seen on the outside of buildings beginning
at this time. Almost always they are found on the
sides of buildings that are sunlit in afternoon, the
south and west sides. Cluster flies may move into
most any crack/crevice on the building siding that
allows them entrance to a winter shelter, but they
concentrate in areas on the upper stories of
buildings. Flies that do find a suitable indoor site
may then cluster together in masses.
During the winter months cluster flies are in a
semi-dormant state (diapause) and do not
reproduce. However, with periods of warm weather
they may stir move about a bit, sometimes
emerging into living areas and flying slowly, zombie
-like. No reproduction occurs indoors, as they only
can develop on earthworms. Ultimately, by late
spring, they will all have moved out of the building
or will have died behind the walls.
More information on cluster flies can be found
at: http://bspm.agsci.colostate.edu/files/2013/03/
Cluster-Flies1.pdf.
Varied carpet beetle
3
Colorado Coalition for School IPM Newsletter | January 2017
Additional Resources
Webinar - Pests of Public Health Importance and
the Role of Integrated Pest Management in
Schools. Tuesday 1/24, 12-1:30 (MT) https://
www.epa.gov/managing-pests-schools/webinars-
about-integrated-pest-management-schools
Free Training & Earn CEU’s - “Vector Control for
Environmental Health Professionals (VCEHP)” by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This training emphasizes the use of IPM to address
public health pests and vectors that spread
diseases, including Zika virus and others. For more
information and registration, please visit:
https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/elearn/vcehp.html
The Funnies
Credits
Editors: Pierce Hansen, CEPEP; Thia Walker, CEPEP; Clyde
Wilson, U.S. EPA Region 8.
Design & layout: Pierce Hansen
“Pest of the month” photo & “Current Pests” photos:
Whitney Cranshaw, CSU, Bugwood.org
Want to subscribe or unsubscribe? Go to:
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Remember, the CCSIPM listerv is a forum for you to
post a message to the entire group! Simply write a
message to [email protected]!
Did we miss something? See an error?
Please contact us at: [email protected]
http://cepep.agsci.colostate.edu/
Comic by Gary Larson, The Far Side ©
Possible Funding Source
Lowe's will donate up to $5 million to K-12
public/charter schools and to parent teacher
groups - at as many as 1,000 different public
schools per school year.
Raise up to $5,000 for your school in
minutes. It's that easy when you take advantage
of Lowe's Toolbox for Education grant program.
Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation
(LCEF) knows how hard you work for your kids and
your community and is dedicated to helping your
parent-teacher group achieve even more for your
school. Apply for our Toolbox for Education Grant
now and build on your already impressive parent
group success with Lowe's.
Now in its 11th year of helping build better
schools and communities, the Lowe's Toolbox for
Education program has provided over $49 million
to more than 11,000 schools across the country.
Imagine what you could do for your school.
Let us know your ideas to make your school a
better place and we can help you fulfill them.
2016-2017 Grant Application Update
For more than 65 years, Lowe's has supported
the communities we call home. At a time when
schools are struggling to support the needs of
their students, the Lowe's Charitable and
Educational Foundation recognizes the importance
of financial support.
This year LCEF is seeking ways to provide the
tools to help educators and parent groups
through educational challenges by providing the
greatest impact. Projects should fall into one of
the following categories: technology upgrades,
tools for STEM programs, facility renovations and
safety improvements.
Please keep this focus in mind as you apply for
a Lowe's Toolbox for Education® grant in the 2016-
2017 academic year. The deadline for submitting
applications for this grant cycle is February 9,
2017 11:59 pm EST. Thank you.
More information, FAQs, and link to apply:
http://www.toolboxforeducation.com/index.html
