Retailers Attend IPM Workshops on Invasive Pests and More

[From the May 2017 issue of the UC IPM Retail Newsletter]

Retail nursery and garden center employees play an important role in communicating pest management information to gardeners and the public. The UC Statewide IPM Program (UC IPM) strives to help retailers stay current on emerging pest-related topics facing California that help consumers effectively manage pests.

As part of this effort, UC IPM partnered with several UC Cooperative Extension Advisors and Specialists to offer three regional train-the trainer workshops in 2016 and early 2017. A total of 188 participants from 41 retail stores in 23 counties attended the workshops. Attendees participated in hands-on learning and discussions on the topics:

• identifying and reducing the spread of the invasive Asian citrus psyllid and huanglongbing disease (ACP and HLB);
• household pests such as cockroaches and ants;
• integrated pest management and understanding pesticides and labels;
• exotic and invasive pests found in California.

Resources from UC IPM

Each workshop culminated with a discussion of the numerous online resources UC IPM has for retail nursery and garden center employees. Attendees were provided with a USB flash drive containing scripted Powerpoint files, hands-on activities and instructions, handouts, and other support materials. They gained valuable knowledge about the many online resources available to better help them answer their customer's pest questions. Visit UC IPM's Retail portal page to find many of these resources at http://ipm.ucanr.edu/RETAIL.

Future training

UC IPM plans to offer future workshops on vertebrate pest identification and management tools, new tools and resources, and other emerging pests and topics. Keep an eye out for announcements about upcoming workshops. Subscribe to the Retail IPM Newsletter and follow UC IPM on social media!

www.facebook.com/ucipmurban
www.twitter.com/ucipmurban
//ucanr.edu/blogs/ucipmurbanpests

-  Karey Windbiel-Rojas, Associate Director for Urban and Community IPM, kwindbiel@ucanr.edu; Anne Schellman, Urban IPM Educator, aschellman@ucanr.edu, UC Statewide IPM Program