Although bats are some of the most misunderstood and needlessly feared of the world’s creatures, they are largely beneficial, serving a vital ecosystem role. But they can be nuisance pests and inadvertently create human-health risks. IPM techniques can help redirect them away from human-occupied structures.
Each year, through a competitive RFA process, the Center’s IPM Partnership Grants Program distributes funding to projects that further the mission of the Center, address or identify IPM priorities for the Northeast, and benefit the region at large.
The award honors those whose work on IPM in the Northeast deserve special recognition. Professionals (or organizations) and students are eligible. Nominations come from colleagues, advisors, supervisors, and others familiar with the nominees’ work.
Several diversity-focused funding opportunities launched in late 2023 have been collaboratively promoted by all four regional IPM centers and are available on a national level. With some projects already funded, additional funding is still available, with applications due June 21.
Summarizing activities, programs, and initiatives from throughout the year, the report illustrates how the Center fosters IPM research, adoption, and implementation in the Northeast and beyond through grants and awards, webinars and conferences, publications and other communications platforms, evaluation, and the Center’s StopPests in Housing Program.
The 11th International IPM Symposium: Pest Management in Changing Environments will be held March 3-6, 2025, at Paradise Point in San Diego, California. The symposium has traditionally been the premier global event for presenting and learning about the latest IPM research and strategies.
The June 2024 issue of IPM Insights is now available as a downloadable PDF.
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 December 2023 issue of IPM Insights is now available as a downloadable PDF.
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.